i love birthdays! They tend to go against every fiber of my being. All
the attention is focused on me and that bothers me. Why? Because I
accept curses easier than praises. Really I'm a very self absorbed
person. Its all about me 24/7 and part of my ego trip is the thought
that really nobody thinks about me. Go figure that one out. So when its
my Birthday I get all this love and attention from my family such as: My
older daughter giving me five Valentines since Sunday! The first word on
my younger daughter's lips this morning being "daddy" even before she's
really awake. My son rising at 6:30am to make me the most wonderful
birthday sign out of paper towels and masking tape. My wife planting a
wonderful warm wet kiss on me just as I'm praying that the Lord show me
love. (I learned later she'd just taken a sip of tea.)
So in spite of my selfish resistance my birthday reminds me that I'm
noticed and that being here is more important than me. That my person is
shared by all those around me. When I am loved on my birthday I'm
humbled. Suddenly I've got some explaining to do for the selfish
aggrandizement I do year round.
2/14/2006
i love birthdays
2/09/2006
thanks. . .
This morning I'm trying to pick up where I left off writing my memoir. Its rough going as I'm dealing with my relationship with my dad at a time in our lives when we were both trying to find our way. He was learning to father a son and I was learning, well, how to face life! We've come a long way since then but I hate focusing on this period. Dad had a big anger/rage issue that continued on into my adulthood. Years later everything has changed---he's now a very good friend.
Anyway, I wrote a few songs about it years back and I came over fully expecting to rerecord them from memory. I started out by listening to what I recorded a couple weeks ago. Those cuts were so bad I don't feel like recording anything now! I'm trying to encourage myself that it is hard work and that self-recording is never perfectly done especially by erstwhile dilettante musicians who rarely record and are very unsure of themselves.
But I trudge along. . . .
This morning I heard on the radio that every fifteen seconds a child dies from water born disease. So as part of our morning reading prayer time before school I very gingerly broke the news to my kids about it. I didn't give them that statistic right out (they're 3, 6, and 9 nears old) but we prayed in general for kids who get sick and even die from not having good water. Then I read from Isaiah 58:6-7 and educated them on the terms "injustice" and "oppression."
If there's anything I'm proud of its that I knew about poverty, oppression and injustice since I can remember! Thanks dad.
2/06/2006
2/02/2006
Gee. . . .we're sorry. Yeah, we made a big mistake. We forgot that when President Bush gives his State of the Union address its really OK for you to wear a dissenting T-shirt.
And I say if you believe that one you'll believe President Bush has had a Damascus Road experience and is going to become an advocate for a new American infrastructure that's not based on Petroleum.
As Rush Limbaugh used to say under Bill Clinton, "The White House is under seige!"
But hey, Cheer up! Only two more years of fascism to go!
That is. . . assuming someone better is waiting to take over.
The Brookings Institute is keeping a tally. In an article titled "What's driving the kidnappings in Iraq?" two authors offer the big picture of what's happening in Iraq. Pray for the release of these captives, but pray for the end of the Iraqi Occupation. Pray for an end to the madness overall. Remember that these Peacemakers knew the odds going in and chose their work carefully.
The CPT hostages kidnapped in Iraq 67 days ago are still alive! The BBC posted video footage
of them on Saturday. Let's all keep praying! Would to God we could see them safely returned to their families! Rose Marie Berger wrote an update yesterday.
2/01/2006
"America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world. The best way to break this addiction is through technology. . . . By applying the talent and technology of America, this country can dramatically improve our environment, move beyond a petroleum-based economy and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past."
--George W. Bush, State of the Union Address
I seem to remember the Bible saying:
"He who sends a message by the hand of a fool cuts off the feet [of satisfactory delivery] and drinks the damage. Like the legs of a lame man which hang loose, so is a parable in the mouth of a fool. Like he who binds a stone in a sling, so is he who gives honor to a [self-confident] fool. Like a thorn that goes [without being felt] into the hand of a drunken man, so is a proverb in the mouth of a [self-confident] fool."
Proverbs 26:6-9 (Amplified Bible)
1/25/2006
Move over Robertson and Lahaye
"This is a religious war that Islam cannot--and must not--win. It was God Himself who have the land of Israel to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their descendants forever. Israel belongs to God and to His chosen people, the Jews. And God holds the future of Israel in His hands, and it will be a glorious future."
Our prayers should be for the kids who get raised here in America hearing this kind of hateful crap day in and day out. Quite honestly I see little difference between this and the white supremist language our society so abhors. Its true the Jews and Blacks used to be the brunt of Christian hate rhetoric. John Hagee is one insuring that in this century it will be the Arabs. Hey Washington, one of your biggest friends in the War on Terror may just be a volatile reverse-jihadist.
Let me make it clear, Hagee is a war monger plain and simple. Thankfully he doesn't speak for Jesus or the Christian position.
1/24/2006
sometimes Wikipedia
1/20/2006
1. the faith of my youth
2. Jesus Inc.
3. the physical, emotional, and spiritual promises of American religion
4. religious power wed with political power in America
5. the silent acceptance and muted allegiance to policy makers
6. addiction and powerlessness. Jesus and the twelfth tradition: anonymity
7. developing a manner of living that demands rigorous honesty
As a friend put it recently, these points are severely rhetorical and my execution through personal narrative is everything. Can I pull it off? That remains to be seen. These themes may change but at this time I feel pretty attached to all of them.
1/16/2006
I just finished Resident Aliens by Hauerwas and Willimon. I wish this book had been recommended to me long ago. As it turns out there are a few people who still take the church seriously in America and are optimistic that both pastor and congregation can shed America's designated position for the church for thE IT"S RIGHTFUL ROLE AS A GOSPEL BEARING JESUS FOLLOWING COLONY OF RESIDENT ALIENS> IM NOT TRYING TO SHOUT MY KEYBOARD IS ACTING WEIRD>
Pick and choose
"OK Jesus, I'll be part of your church but I want to pick and choose my
friends based on whether or not they agree with me or whether we have
things in common. I've got a checklist here involving politics, liturgy,
art, philosophy and theology. As soon as the preacher really has
something to say that I haven't heard before or that I can resonate with
based on my list, than I'll let his words sink in. As soon as our
worship team sounds as good as my CDs than I'll really "enter in." As
soon as the whole congregation gets a clue on the current geo-political
situation than I'll start really hanging out here. As soon as you people
give me some reason not to pull away from the parking lot at noon I'll
do that. Sheesh, who needs the church?!!"
What sort of place does that kind of thinking have in building up the
Kingdom? Uh. . . . I'll get back to you on that one.
1/10/2006
In Rotation this week for me is my own little compilation of Mason Proffit and the Talbot Brothers. If you're into Gram Parsons (Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers), Little Feat, or New Riders of the Purple Sage, but have never heard these guys, then try to dig some up from somewhere! Mason Proffit is selling some on their website. Terry Talbot has got the band back together sans John Michael (as far as I know). Wouldn't it be a wonderful world if somehow enough folks got together to push them to do a box set? I mean come on, Mason Proffit was better than a lot of bands live that now have box sets out. No Depression mag should unearth them again by interviewing Terry Talbot. BTW, I got the Return to Sin City Tribute to Gram Parsons DVD recently and the lap steel virtuoso that backed the whole concert was none other than Al Perkins, who is now with Mason Proffit!
1/08/2006
"Country Boys" looks like a very intriguing program on PBS tomorrow night.
Its part of a focused effort to engage local community and civic groups to focus on
current at-risk teen issues. Watch it on TV or online at Frontline's website after it airs.
There's another link here for a discussion guide and other resources.
I definitely resonate with the need for this as I spent my teen years in a small town in central Missouri and watched many of my peers self destruct.
Frontline
ITVC Campaign
1/07/2006
1/06/2006
I Wish. . .
In the Works
Pray for Palestine and Israel
12/26/2005
They Dun It! And what a great time we all had!
What I want to know is, is she blogging from her honeymoon?!!!
12/12/2005
On Friday morning I was talking on the phone watching the street out in front of our office building when I noticed a Canada goose land in traffic in front of a parked car. I finished my conversation and it still hadn't moved from where it landed. I went to my desk and looked out again and saw that traffic (including a snow plow) were all passing around it. Its a two lane street that is often blocked in one lane so I knew this would be quite dangerous for the goose. I called a friend and we went out to see if we couldn't herd it out of traffic. When we got down there we blocked traffic and then my friend Hugo quickly doffed his sweater wrapped it around the goose and brought it back up to 2nd floor where we worked. When he picked it up we noticed that it's right leg was almost cleanly severed off. We called about ten different numbers until we finally found a Rehab that would take it. Three or four hours later they arrived from the suburbs, left a brochure and told us the likelihood was good it could be rereleased into the wild with a prosthetic leg. In all the time Cornerstone mag has been in these offices no one can remember ever seeing this kind of thing happen. Though Hugo did save a guy's life once. But that's another story.Saving this goose was a wonderful experience and will long be a reminder to me of hope and sometimes a simple eagerness to save something wild from becoming roadkill. Apply that as you like.
hospitality in the face of fear
12/07/2005
It amazes me how these folks have so much more empathy for foreigners, more self-awareness, more love of real freedom and democracy than my own government! Dear God preserve these kidnapped peace warriors. Change the hearts of their captors and reveal to them their true needs.
12/06/2005
Christian Spirituality
12/05/2005
in this together
I asked an older and wiser friend how he deals with financial woe and he
reminded me that we're in this thing together. Living in an intentional
community, we work for a common good. Sometimes we go in debt together.
I can't help but feel bummed about that. But we're all feeling bummed.
Sometimes I bear the weight of my job alone and I just have to call and
share it and recieve prayer. Its not fair really to bear the burden
alone. If I get under it I take it out on brothers and sisters in anger
or in a depressive slump, so yeah, prayer is always better than trying
to bear the weight alone. That's what faith is about. Pray, don't give
up, put one step in front of the other. Believe God will get me through
this again. Truthfully I most likely will forget in a while how bummed
I've been that last month.
Another thought, as an American I bear in the sufferings of a nation at
the moment. Even with all the triumphal talk from Washington its clear
that with thousands of displaced Hurricane Victims and thousands of
fallen sons and daughters to this Iraq Occupation we're all suffering.
In this Advent season we all await the Savior in a time of desperate need.
I keep thinking of this song:
"Lady Poverty" lyrics
Talbot Brothers Collection
Lady poverty love me tonight
dress me in sackcloth
where once i wore white
and disperse my fine linens
to the naked and the poor
lady poverty enter my door
give me the riches of my lord
let all suffering come to an end
embracing all hunger let me call it my friend
let my love be made perfect without seeking reward
lady poverty enter my door
give me the riches of my Lord
chorus
and if Jesus was a poor man
then like him i too must be
and if Jesus was a beggar than lift me up
to my knees
for if love never seeks out its own
if love always gives when theres no reward shown
let us be beggars and paupers and servants at best
laboring always so that others might rest
that the sweet name of jesus our tongues might confess
12/03/2005
12/01/2005
a fascinating press release/statement
Ok, now here's an odd twist that reflects the nuance of Occupation. Iraqi kidnappers nabbed CPTers and ISMers who are working in behalf of Palestinians in the West Bank. In a Press Release Islam and National Forces there speak up on their behalf and witness to their work against Occupation. Now obviously CPT and ISM are against terrorism. Still it is puzzling who is good and bad here. Hamas and Fatah stand up and clarify that some Westerners should not be kidnapped. Note: the statement from the Islamic and National Forces in Hebron has some translation mistakes that could be misunderstood. In the first sentence they express sorrow for kidnapping hostages. They aren't the kidnappers.
Three Palestinian Solidarity Activists Amongst Four Peace Activist Hostages in Iraq
November 30th, 2005 | Posted in Press Releases, ISM Media Alerts
CORRECTION: Three of the group of four have previously been in Palestine, not only two as previously stated. James Loney was in Palestine five years ago as an activist with CPT Hebron.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Two of the four Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) hostages in Iraq of whom a video was released today have been in Palestine working as Palestinian Solidarity activists. Tom Fox (54) worked with CPT Hebron and participated in demonstrations against the apartheid Wall in Jayyous. Harmeet Sooden (32) a Canadian citizen who had been living in New Zealand, came to Palestine to join the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in December 2004 and stayed until January 2005. He worked in solidarity with local Palestinian people, mostly in Nablus and Jenin. While in Jenin, he worked with a group of ISM activists who planted Olive trees on the 'Swithart' farm outside Jenin, He was committed to come to Palestine for three months to join the ISM again at the beginning of December 2005 as a long term activist for the liberation of Palestine from Israeli occupation, but first decided to join a two week CPT delegation to Iraq.
Palestinians in Ramallah will hold a demonstration tomorrow at 3pm in solidarity with all four kidnapped peace activists and to appeal for their release. The demonstration will be attended by notable Palestinian religious and resistance figures.
Mustafa Jayyousi a local Palestinian activist in Jayyous who knew Tom said: "When he worked in Jayyous, Tom was part of a group who went down to the gates everyday with local farmers to help them access their lands made inaccessible by the wall. He also participated in demonstrations with the people of Jayyous against the apartheid Wall in Jayyous".
Mohammed Ayyesh a local Palestinian activist in Balata camp, Nablus said of Harmeet: "I was touch with Harmeet and was looking forward to him coming here to work next week. We must do everything we can to secure his release".
In an email to his friends Harmeet described the purpose of the four-person team's work in Iraq as: "providing humanitarian aid in the form of training and documentation of non-violent responses to lethal inter-group conflict. We will also record the current conditions in Iraq, meeting with representatives of NGOs, Christian and Muslim clerics, Iraqi human rights groups and others". He also recounted a story from Iraq: "A little 3-year old girl, Alaa, ran up to me and gave me a big hug me yesterday. She reminds me of my niece. She, however, does not see as my niece sees. She sustained severe shrapnel injuries to her abdomen and micro-fragments peppered her eyes, face and body during a US military attack in May on al Qaim, Iraq. Her mother lost an eye. She lost two brothers and several other relatives".
Some of his friends who worked with Harmeet in the ISM appealed to the kidnappers for his release:
Donna: "Since he was back in New Zealand, Harmeet formed a new Palestinian Solidarity Group on Auckland University campus and organised speakers and forums about Palestine. He is a very shy, quiet guy, but very committed and hoped to return to Palestine next month."
Asa: "Harmeet is a great person - we worked in solidarity with the Palestinian people together. He cares deeply about the plight of all oppressed people and is unequivocally against the occupation of Iraq and Palestine. He has also been involved in work around the conflict over Kashmir and in favour of the right of the people there for self determination. He would never act as a spy for any government. He is a sound peace activist."
Patrick Connors: "I know Harmeet from when he volunteered with ISM in Palestine last winter. Harmeet is a very good, serious, committed person. CPT is a solid organization, with serious training and procedures, that does great things."
For more information:
ISM Media office: 02 297 1824
Statement from The Islamic & National Forces in Hebron.
In the name of Allah the Greatest the [Com]passionate.
The National and Islamic Forces in Hebron/Palestine express their deep sorrow for kidnapping four of the peace advocates from the CPT in Iraq.
The National and Islamic Forces in Hebron who has along experience in dealing with crimes and Israeli violations with the CPT from 1995 ,would like to confirm that the CPTers have a very strong role in facing the Israeli crimes and violations and in protecting the life and the belongings of the Palestinians. They put themselves in many situations in front of the Israeli tanks.
They confronted the Israeli bulldozers and the Israeli home demolition and escorted our children to and from their schools to protect them from settlers.
Because of all their activities ,the members of the team were followed, arrested and beaten by Israeli soldiers and settlers in many occasions.
The Israeli authorities have prevented some of them from entering Palestine .
We urge the brothers in the resistance and all the alert conscience in Iraq , whom we consider our selves together in the same tunnel against the American terrorism and assault, to promptly release the four kidnapped (2 Canadian, one British ,and one American ) from CPT, for their role in supporting our Palestinian and Arab an Islamic nations.
Freedom for Iraqi and Palestinian people.
Shame for Zionist and American occupation.
The Islamic & National Forces in Hebron.
Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) .
Fateh Movement .
People's Party .
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine .
Palestine Liberation Front .
Palestine Democratic Union . FIDA.
Palestinian Front for popular fighting ( ? Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP))
11/30/2005
"The Israeli Army has set up a checkpoint to prevent Palestinian children from getting to their school in al-Khalil/Hebron because of an illegal Jewish settlement in the area. The children have decided not to sit back and let this happen with no protest. These kids are brave!"
A friend sent me these photos and this caption. When I saw these all my little morning complaints just fizzled away. Remember: regardless of what you hear from the Prez, Occupation is always immoral. Iraq is not our new little democracy garden across the sea. Occupation hasn't worked for Israel since 1967 and it won't work for us in Iraq either. There is no victory or freedom in military occupation.Only more terror and innocent death.
11/21/2005
GO SEE 'WALK THE LINE'
Playing the national icon Johnny Cash would have to be the most daunting job for an actor, short of playing Jesus Christ. Nobody can do it. But Pheonix successfully lets us forget about him and think about Cash. He'll make you a believer. After the Fulsom prison seen I had to go back and hear the real thing again. If you haven't heard the 1999 extended version its worth buying. And then of course you gotta move on to San Quentin. . . .
11/16/2005
physician heal thyself
I guess I see myself the same way with the search I'm on and subjects I care about. As a teen I started on this search to understand myself, God, and the world I live in. I've found Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Karl Barth, and many others extremely helpful. Each year I'm reading more "intellectual books" than the year before. Does that make me an intellectual or a trusted source? Probably not. I would hope that somehow what I'm reading could benefit others. I hope its not just intellectual masturbation. Anyway, I've got friends who started on the same path with me in Bible college and now in pursuit of their graduate educations are on a different path altogether. I've got other friends now who don't share my faith but who are very important to my faith. They speak thousands of pages worth of material to me in their simple desire to be sober, faithful, and close to God as they understand him all the while equally eager to say they don't. In my experience Francis Schaeffer is wrong: Right belief does not necessarily lead to right action. Bonhoeffer said in Nachfolge: Belief and Obedience is not either or. You can't have one without the other. (Of course that's not a quote.)
I want to believe. I want to obey. If I've got to be an intellectual to do that than consider me guilty as charged. The end of the whole matter is that I'm sick and I'll do anything to get better and if I've got some little remedies I'll pass them along. If it doesn't help you I hope it at least doesn't hurt.
11/14/2005
Ellul, The Presence of the Kingdom
http://www.jesusradicals.com/library/ellul/presence/presence.html
and here are some thoughts:
Chapter One: The Christianity in the World lays out the predicament for the Christian layperson in the world. Very inciteful. Barth's influence really comes out in this chapter and the next (at least I think so, I'm still an Ellul neophyte). He uses a parable of Jesus to illustrate the Christian's function as salt of the earth, light of the world, sheep in the midst of wolves. He riffs on how the laity can't seperate themselves from the world and here I take issue, he seems to think that clerics can't possibly speak to the world and or that the world just won't really listen. I would argue that both laity and clerics are in the same boat now. The American situation illustrates that anyone speaking of faith faces the same doubts, derision, and general image of ambivalence and mistrust. His clear ideas in this chapter are worth a read by anyone. Christians can't seperate themselves from the world or their own sin. His examples of ways we try to do this are brilliant! After this he gets to his discription of the agonistic way of life. "the presence in our hearts of judgment and grace with insures our liberty. Free because we're judged and pardoned." Very Barthian indeed.
Chapter 2: Revolutionary Christianity: How the Christian understanding of the material world is apocalyptic rather than historic. Human meaning is apocalyptic rather than material.
Chapter 3: The End and the Means: The Christian understanding of Person is Revolutionary in the face of the world's interest in Technic. This has to be the best chapter thus far. He successfully demonstrates the triumph of means in society.
He has sweeping general statements that make him sound like a pariah or demagogue such as:
But then the more I think about it the more I agree. I don't feel as much a slave to means because of the way I live. Compared to many I don't live a rat race. I am very into computers and I worry that means there has taken more than I should be giving.WE ARE CAUGHT IN a trap. It is no use pretending to be "deep," and to talk loftily about the possession of inward liberty. If liberty cannot be expressed in my life it is an illusion. For a Christian this situation is appalling, for what we have been describing actually proves that at the present time it is impossible to live one's faith, to bear a genuine witness. Of course, it is obvious that it has always been impossible to live one's faith, and we easily comfort ourselves by saying that "our day is no worse than any other," and that "our difficulties are just the same." Well, that is just not true! It may have always been impossible to live one's faith, but that was due to inward causes: "Woe unto me! for the good which I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I practice!" But today this difficulty is increased still further by external causes. In no other civilization has man been so totally repressed. He may have been the slave of hunger, of natural circumstances, or of another man: but he always managed to preserve a margin of freedom, sufficient to remain master of the greater part of his time, and to choose his own line, out of several possibilities. All civilizations have imposed a certain amount of restriction, but they left man a large field for free and individual action. The Roman slave, the medieval serf, was freer, more personal, more socially human (I do not say "happier," from the material point of view) than the modern industrial worker or the Soviet Union official. Our civilization, which claims to exert no restraint, tries to dominate man as a whole, and to confine him within narrow limits, where all his gestures, and his secret thoughts, will be controlled by the social machine. This represents the triumph of means. It is this new fact that hinders men from living the Christian faith.
Thus Christians ought to be fully aware of the fact that the witness and the action of the Christian have also become impossible, owing to these circumstances; he ought to know that unless he can break down this supremacy of means, it is "all up" with the social aspect of Christianity, unless a miracle happens, and it will not be long before the personal aspect also will be attacked, for faith in Jesus Christ cannot live long in this rarefied air. We must break this dictatorship. Christians must enter into a conflict "not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world‑rulers of this darkness" (Eph. 6:12). And they ought to know that this conflict, which is primarily spiritual, at least at first, is a life and death struggle. Rimbaud's phrase is more applicable than ever‑"The spiritual conflict is as brutal as any battle in time of war!"
Chapter Four The Problem of Communication:
This one is beautiful but I'm uncomfortable with his talk of the intellectual. He should define what it is to be intellectual. Why is the issue of communication only for intellectuals? That tone seems rather elitist. In this postmodern age hopefully the concept of intellectualism is more fragmented and less elitist. Though I fear postmodernism is more not less elitist than modernism.
At any rate communication it is true has become swallowed by means and its evident that it is no longer for the person. As Christians we must struggle to communicate with people, not abstracts. That conversation is beautiful.
Well honestly I'll end now as this is as far as I've read. I may pick it up again later.
11/03/2005
Cornerstone Fest Forums
10/26/2005
Astros face tough odds after loss
Justice: Long night's work yields nothing
Yes I'm done gloating.
While its true I haven't been posting about it, for at least four years now I've been enjoying the Chicago White Sox with partial season tickets. I've been following all the playoff and series games ardently and they've given more reason to believe last night than ever before! With my wife and youngest daughter sick I elected to watch the game in my own room rather than down on third floor with the Sox rally.
(Down in the rally room during game two my glasses were knocked off and scratched up by the beautiful malaise of Konerko's Grand Slam. I'll always cherish the crazy surprising embarrassing hug I shared with an officemate of mine. And the scratches at eye level I'm forced to look through are a better personal testament of my devotion than any White Sox hat I wish I owned.)
By 10:30pm Martha and I were fading fast and with the words "I still believe my Sox can take this game" falling from my lips we went to bed. The next morning sure enough they had come through!
Now what could be sweeter than a Sweep tonight in Houston? George W. Bush throwing out the first pitch. I saw Barbara in the audience last night rooting for Houston. Couldn't the prez come out to root for his 10/21/2005
As every reader knows, the Gospels are overwhelmingly concerned with the conduct of human life, of life in the human commonwealth. In the Sermon on the Mount and in other places Jesus is asking his followers to see that the way to more abundant life is the way of love. We are to love one another, and this love is to be more comprehensive than our love for family and friends and tribe and nation. We are to love our neighbors though they may be strangers to us. We are to love our enemies. And this is to be a practical love; it is to be practiced, here and now. Love evidently is not just a feeling but is indistinguishable from the willingness to help, to be useful to one another. The way of love is indistinguishable, moreover, from the way of freedom. We don't need much imagination to imagine that to be free of hatred, of enmity, of the endless and hopeless effort to oppose violence with violence, would be to have life more abundantly. To be free of indifference would be to have life more abundantly. To be free of the insane rationalizations for our urge to kill one another—that surely would be to have life more abundantly.
10/20/2005
"Swimmer" died today
Our Beta fish "Swimmer" died today of old age. We had him three or four years. My son doesn't know yet. We flushed it down the toilet. I hope that doesn't create a problem when he gets home from school. In retrospect maybe we should have let him see it go.
10/19/2005
Central Faith Questions: Humanization
Central Faith Questions
We were walking into Borders across from the Water Tower Place along Michigan Avenue here in Chicago. Martha and I had just seen "The Constant Gardener" together over at the Esquire theatre on Oak and I sort of offhandedly share a thought as it came to me. What are the central faith questions that voices of Christ should be speaking? What is the Evangel that the world has yet to hear? Are the Five Spiritual Laws really such a threat to the devil in America? I came to this conclusion: The central questions of faith that are pertinent to disciples of Jesus surround whether what we claim to be true, [namely that 1.) every human being is truly made in God's image, 2.) God desires a relationship with every human, 3.) that he intends to make humans truly whole and truly human and 4.) place us in loving relation to every other human] is what we intend to live by and share with ALL humanity.
I've heard the term humanization thrown around a fair bit, usually only by academics. And I'm sure it means different things to different people. When Walter Wink writes about becoming truly Human in his "biblical study" of the term son of man and its implication for a new humanity [The Human Being: Jesus and the Enigma of the Son of Man] it is clear he means something different than say Dietrich Bonhoeffer's reference to "being conformed to the Risen One. . .a new man before God" in his Ethics. These men are of two entirely different species of thought, and I fear Wink has something wholly other in mind when he refers to Christ. As hard as I try the more I read of Barth the more I can't understand any relevance for American liberalism. But then again reading Barth clearly shoots holes in American conservativism as well.
I'm reading Bonhoeffer's Ethics as Formation again (from Ethics) and also have in hand Jean Vanier's Becoming Human and also Humanization and the Politics of God by Nancy Duff, which by my reading is the closest thing to Bonhoeffer that an American Theological Ethic has ever produced. Do I need to go into Lehmann and Bonhoeffer's connection?
In searching for a practical historic and political application I heartily recommend Andrew Bacevich's American Empire and Jonathan Glover's Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century. Robert F. Drinan has written a wonderful book on his work in the UN titled The Mobilization of Shame: A World View of Human Rights. These are not happy books (though Drinan offers a lot more hope in his book). America has been living with a lot of guilt for a long time and its fool hardy to think that as Christians we don't share in that guilt. In our preaching do we as Christians share in our nations guilt and then confess our sins and seek forgiveness and healing? Or do we think that the gospel has very little to say to our national and international history?
This year Baker Academic released a book edited by Ronald Sider and Diane Knippers titled: Toward an Evangelical Public Policy: Political Strategies for the Health of the Nation. It was a huge leap forward for naming what Evangelical public policy will involve. With articles from a very diverse church and politick background the book reveals the Evangelical landscape of thought for all its flaws and strengths. My personal impression was that there were many more flaws, weaknesses, and embarrassments than strengths and that many writers were far too generous in their assessments of our contributions. Richard Cizik's glowing hagiography of the NAE was the case in point. He spoke so lovingly of his organizations long history of keeping the faithful white, right, and in the light. As I read it I was red with rage toward how the organization was so blatantly racist, anti-Catholic, and almost singly responsible for allowing televangelists the free reign they have on the airwaves now to take money from whomever they want without restriction. That's our heritage to glory in?
Gushee and Hollinger's chapter on Ethics revealed nothing of substance or interest to me. They survey all the different denominational expressions of Ethical study but the study in and of itself was typified as very dry and unengaging. Show me how an Evangelical Ethic speaks to the world situation! In all honesty I've picked this book up and laid it down repeatedly since it came out in the spring. The voices it represents bring more pain than interest at this point. I know the book is important, but I find much more help outside the Evangelical community than in it. I'm sorry to have to say that.
Well I still have a lot of reading to do. I wish I had more folks to dialogue with on this.
10/12/2005
fathering a little girl
So fragile and frail one moment
so beligerant and stubborn the next
Her very birth six years ago
was a sign of her autonomy
She would not be born
all that month
Late night hospital visits
trying all night
and then one day
mom could not get to the hospital fast enough
Now she's full of refusals
I won't get changed for bed!
I won't go to school today!
I don't want you to tuck me in!
I don't want you to kiss me!
You won't make me laugh!
The litany drags on for what seems an eternity.
Fathers. You can't live with them and you can't live
without them. They're never there fast enough. . .
and they just don't know when they're not wanted.
Little girls. It takes a while.
For them to know what they want.
9/30/2005
“If Christians are to be free in society they must be really free. They have to go their own way in great and little things alike, and therefore in their thought and speech and attitude they are always at bottom. . . aliens and strangers who will give plenty of cause for offense in different directions. To some they will appear to be far to ascetic. To others they will appear to affirm life far too unconcernedly. . . . On the one hand they will be accused as authoritarian, on the other as free thinkers. . . on the one hand as bourgeois, on the other as anarchists. They will seldom find themselves in the majority. . . . Things generally accepted as self-evident will never claim their absolute allegiance. . . . Nor will they command their complete negation, so they can hardly count on the applause of the revolutionaries of their day. Nor will their freedom. . . be exercised by them in secret, but revealed openly in free acts and attitudes which will never be right in the world.” (IV/2 690=610) pg. 120-121 The Great Passion: An Introduction to Karl Barth by Eberhard Busch, Eerdmans, 2004.
Financial freedom
I define myself financially free. [I love that song "Country Boy" by Johnny Cash] Many folks would call me creditless, uninteresting, unhelpful, not a team player, maybe even hurtful and rebellious. And I say that's just plain sick. Why should my credit information or lack of it make me a nonperson? How many billions are in the world? How many of those are Americans? A handful. How many world citizens have credit? Only a portion. Call me a rebel but I'm a Christian first, a human on the planet second, and an American by circumstance. I didn't ask to win a genetic lottery by being male, white, and American. And the responsibility I have because of these I'll spend for Jesus not for America (and not for America's version of Jesus). I see America at odds with the world's financial freedom. Humans are entitled to the subsistent life I maintain (food, clothes, shelter, debt freedom) and they don't have it. Instead of cherishing some part of the credit system and indulging in it I'd rather ask how my time and resources can be spent in community with anyone that needs it. That's an insecure and messy way to live for a lot of folks. They look at you like you're crazy or a patron saint. They throw money at you or just pity you. Oh well.
9/20/2005
A Personal History of the Birth of a Book
9/09/2005
weekend with family
From last Wednesday until Monday, Martha and I took the kids and an
Amtrak train down to the Jeff City MO area for my parent's wedding vow
renewal. It was such a beautiful time. I'll have to post pics soon. But
the story I want to tell is on a little misunderstanding I perpetuated.
My sister found this little beautiful bed and breakfast for my folks as
a little second honeymoon retreat. The next day we all planned to meet
somewhere and have a picnic. Well Steph wasn't quite sure how the picnic
would all work out. We're all kind of on the poor side with not so much
cash flow. Anyway, we decide on this little winery nestled away
somewhere near Hermann. We all pull into this little place in a valley
and pile out. Four cars of us. Dad and my three kids situate themselves
under a tree and the rest of us go inside to watch people taste wine.
What else do you do at a winery? There was an all you can eat labor day
picnic going on there but we didn't know what it would cost and then
decided we couldn't afford it. The kids are filing in every few minutes
to use the bathroom. So after a few of us tasted the wine (not me) we
all filed out under the tree. I have my Martin out and I'm trying to
remember songs for us to sing. We chatted and munched on food dad saved
from the night before. Steak and cake and a bake potato wrapped in
aluminum foil. There were water bottles and Cokes. The owner came out
and saw us there and smiled. Somewhere in that time I started singing
"Whiskey River" by Willie Nelson. The owner must have heard me when
heading back in and saw us drinking from the water bottles. On my next
kid bathroom break he cornered me with "I don't know what you all are
drinking out there but we're not into that here. This is a family place.
We don't allow alcohol other than the wine we provide. What's in those
water bottles?" Boy was I embarassed. I forgot I'd been singing that
song until I got back to Chicago. I assured him we weren't drinking and
didn't drink. But shortly thereafter we all lit out of there feeling
like the freeloaders we undoubtedly were. It was a great hour and a
half. I'm blessed with a great family. Blessings on Jen and Nate as they
ready to wed. And on my folks on their new life together again.
9/08/2005
Been Readin. . .
The print deadline for the book we're publishing Season of Joy by Jim Benes is due Tuesday! Pray for me as I work my tail off this weekend. Hopefully a gang of us will be working. . . but we'll see.
On play is John Prine's song "Other Side of Town" from his album "Fair and Square." The thrill of his song "Some Humans Ain't Human" has long worn off now. It only serves to remind me to pray for humans I'm so quick to criticize and I'm startin to see those other five fingers pointing back at me. The song goes:
"Some humans ain't human/some people ain't kind/you open up their hearts /and here's what you find/a few frozen pizzas/some icecubes with hair/a broken popcicle/you don't wanna go there"
and then it goes on basically comiserating over the resentments us liberals no doubt feel all the time toward folks in power, our neighbors, and other folks in church. While I sympathize with the sentiment I pity the singer if he's unable to see his own judgemental attitude in the song.
The Twelve Steps teach that when I'm not at peace something's wrong with me. Socially and politically there's constant unrest with me and I'm sure all Americans with their eyes open. May I reach out for prayer for my government and myself during these fearful times. Its so easy to accuse, and sink into insanity and resentment. God help me to pray.
8/27/2005
8/25/2005
Can we agree to disagree pt. II
I just gave examples that no doubt are easily named among political
rightists. But leftist examples are also clear:
turning a blind eye to sexual immorality, calling same sex marriage God
ordained, backing equally selfish leftist demagogues in their bid for
power, scripture twisting (just like the rightists) until it clearly
fits an agenda, demonizing and lying about the opposition, and finally
the idolatry of making God useful for their purposes.
God is of no use to either rightists or leftists. We all stand under his
judgement.
Now back to the agree to disagree, we should ask not for what we can
agree on but whether our only final option is separation. The truth is
the Evangelical landscape is so all encompassing that various works have
been in opposition to one another for years. The media spotlight now
aggravates it to be sure. I am personally amazed by groups like the
National Association of Evangelicals who have rightists at the helm and
many leftist and progressive thinkers helping to frame policy now who
are surely in large disagreement.
Can we agree to disagree?
Is it possible for Christians to agree on essentials, namely Christ's
person and work, and vehemently disagree on matters of social,
political, and public relations? That's a question that's been really
bugging me lately. Did Jesus come to bring peace and harmony and are
disagreements like these only getting in the way? I'm not so sure its so
cut and dry. The book of First John addresses both of these issues and
more. First he warns against those who deny Christ as the Son but he
equally warns that true Christians are known by their deeds. But for
those asking the question he admonishes to Love our brothers and
sisters. There is a lot packed into this little book! There is a time
to overlook one another's faults and bear with weaker members. But out
of love for Christ the work of exposing harmful directives (such as the
suggestion to assassinate leaders, to amass wealth even in shady deals,
to teach women they are naturally weaker and subservient to men, or that
one nation is God-ordained to commit crimes against another) for what
they are: sinful and against Christ's work.
8/24/2005
Amira Haas article
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/616309.html
8/19/2005
on a-bomb day i had nothing to say
"That evil appears in the form of light, of beneficence, of faithfulness, of renewal, that it appears in the form of historical necessity, of social justices, is for the commonsense observer a clear confirmation of its profound evilness."I read that and I think of the use of the bomb on Nagasaki. Hiroshima was not enough. Somehow Japan wouldn't have surrendered with Hiroshima. We had to drop it again. And what of it all now? Is it even an issue anymore?
I think it should be.
7/28/2005
cracklin moth at the hideout
Cracklin' moth was really great. The crowd was groovin and dancing and seemed to really enjoy themselves. The band is tight and Matt's voice really works. Maybe they're the funnest little Chicago alt. country band you'll have heard in a while. Give 'em a listen. cracklinmoth.com There's free songs to download on their site.
Well we got home at midnight and I showered up and discarded my second-hand-smoke wreaked clothes. I was scared Martha would wake up and say "You smell." But she never noticed.
Michael and I would like to sneek out to the Hideout again some night. All right I'm not fooling anybody. I don't sneek anywhere anymore. Anyway, it was fun.
7/22/2005
waiting
Limbo. Expecting messages back from more people than I can remember. By
email. The Inbox bolds up. Maybe just maybe this is important. Spam.
#%*@!!!! Its lonely here that's the bottom line. Wilco makes it all better.
7/20/2005
be watching
I heard today that all the plenaries and sermons from this year's
Ekklesia Project gathering will be posted in audio for download to the
website soon. Be watching: ekklesiaproject.org
7/19/2005
Bill Cavanaugh gave an Amazing plenary on "The Empire of the Empty Shrine." Here are my notes from his lecture:
William Cavanaugh
The Empire of the Empty Shrine
The first commandment is a flight from the Empire of Egypt. Israel/Babylon. Early Christians/Rome. Correct past mistakes by offering no gods to worship. Novak: respect for the freedom of human conscience. Empty shrine. Democratic capitalism should sweep the shrine clean. Founding fathers would agree with this. Empty openness at heart of DC lends itself to expansion and empire.
Emptiness and openness leads to idolatry. Liberalism in US has been wed with perfect consistency to consumerism.
In order for the US to have an empire we must deny we have one. Central organizing myth is that "we had greatness thrust upon us."
"American Empire" Andrew Basavich
After WWII all we wanted to do was come home. Bush: rid world of evil typical of that myth. Our preferred way of telling the story. Preserves our sense of virtue. Our modesty is preserved in our reluctance to use our awesome power. We didn't choose it it just happened. There must be a strong element of providence (which we can't second guess) to maintain this. Our modesty and reluctance prove our greatness. Main problem with this is that it's false.
Not historically true to believe we've taken stage in response. Teddy Roosevelt "our whole national history has been one of expansion." Under Clinton mantra was openness. This policy is not new.
2 ironies
1. universalism is flag waving nationalism. Because we understand history we are the exception to history. Nation/state becomes the one agreed upon end. That system alone unites all nations. Patriotism lets us ignore class divisions.
2. oscillates between idealism and selfishness. We expect no limits to our conumptive way of life. Jimmy Carter "respond to the crisis with lower expectations."
Ideology of openness. Capitalism is about growth and expansion. The only thing uniting us is our freedom to disagree. Votaire: I may not agree with what you say but I'll defend with the death your right to say it. "Of course that's not my death someone elses."
Our way has a missionary impulse. Give up the idea of the end of history for capitalism. We are on the right side of history. Madeleine Albright, "We have our duty to write history."
With openness comes peace. Now openness brings lack of security. National defense dropped for national security. Now openness itself is a threat to peace from those who would keep us from writing history.
Full spectrum dominance. By some estimates our military spending rivals all other nation's combined. "Those ambiguous situations residing between peace and war."
Technology lets us see through the fog of war. Omniscience and omnipotence are within our grasp. Infinite reach. Infinite justice.
The kind of olympian perspective Homer had given his gods.--Gen. Tommy Franks.
Ascend beyond the particularities of humans. Empty all particular creeds to keep from claiming any particular God.
Fill shrine with National God who sees resistence to Openness.
Part II
Theological critique of Empire.
Ex. 19:5-6 "But you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." Chooses to save world through particular history of one people.
Shrine is never truly empty. God is not generic he is of a particular people.
Influential exceptionalism: US is new Israel. Providential fulfillment through one nation. New Testament Israel is the church. Rom. 9-11
1 Peter 2:9, The church is a holy nation. Ekklesia is the parculiar political stance of the church. The Day of the Assembly--Dueteronomic. The idea refers to the whole. Saw themselves as the eschatological fulfillment of Israel. The church is not polis and yet it used the language of citizenship. Christians are questionable citizens of any empire. Loyalty to church is primary.
In America there is no single visible idol. Openness is not a good candidate for idolatry. Its the ineffability of the national god that makes it so powerful. By denying its power we give it more power. That god may not be refused when sacrifice is required. US acts as substitute for church and God. All religion is civil religion to Durkheim. Empty shrine threatens to make a deity not out of God but our freedom to worship God. Worship becomes worship of our collective self. Freedom becomes the one thing we will die and kill for.
You shall not kill.
Godlikeness comes in where State alone can kill. Confess any God you want provided you're willing to kill for America. Kill is in subject not verb. Divide between God and humans. God alone decides. [You] is the command. God is particular so that his work can spread. All have chance to behold and test this new thing. They are not forced. Lofink "Does God need the church?" Ex. 14:14 The Lord will fight for you you have only to keep still. Their victory is through the intervention of the Lord.
Every army thinks it has divine favor. In OT emphasis is on lack of military strength. "Two little flocks of goats." Huge army of Arimeans. Contrast is in the strength of other nation's militaries. OT served as paradigm for early church. Martyrdom becomes the way of victory for early church. Discern God's activity in persecution and weakness. Church imitates Christ by absorbing the violence of the world. If Jesus is the point of history then Christians read history from the point of his life, death, and ress. Find true life by refusing to fear death.
The church is our primary political community. Not triumph of church but repentence. American empire has taken over many of the functions of the church. Missions, catholicity, universalism, all coopted by US empire.
Obedience as liberation.
Liberation as absorbing violence.
Questions:
What about church as leaven in the world?
Reservation: if the church is leaven and something else is bread. Nation is a given, church helps to make it a bit better. Avoid that.
Bread must be the body of Christ. Proclaim the different kind of community with is a political reality.
Economics of church vs. empire.
Part of our task is to create difference economic spaces. Not necessarily withdrawal or seperation. But structures have to be transformed. Create a different economic space not determined by profit but by whats best for all in community.
Church's role: Its not as if the stage is the nation. The tragedy is the nation and the comedy is the church. We work together for a good solution. The church-sect dichotomy is not the only option (Join the Amish or write your congressman.)
Andrew Basavich "American Empire"
There's nothing about divine sanction that can't be used for violence. Yes Xianity has produced violence but the greater problem is in secular ideologies that do violence for the empty shrine. Our secular violence is rational, secular, muniative. "Regrettably, we need to bomb them into the higher rationality."
The nation is the truly sectarian body that divides the world's body. The church unites members or potential members of Christ's body.
--------------------------
Much of this is no doubt cryptic but maybe you'll like it.
7/12/2005
some things i just can't blog about
I finished Flannery O'Connor's "The Violent Bear It Away" recently. What a weird ending! I can't quite decide what's happening. Is Tarwater a ghost? Is it all a vision? I looked it up in Jill Baumgaertner's book but see nothing about the ending. She mentions Tarwater being raped though. When did that happen?
