Surmisals and pontifications

I really want to have something to say about Terri Gross's Fresh Air on Christian Zionism and Lauren Sandler's Salon article on the Mar's Hill Church. I could tell you my sundry opinions but at the end of the day it's really all too disjointed. My final thoughts are that the subjects discussed are important to me but that they haven't provoked anything so new as to warrant a discussion. Terri Gross deserves kudos for raising public attention, but can't really get us past the outrage to unpack who John Hagee is. The show leaves us with "dangerous kook." Similarly, Lauren Sandler raises the important issue of a missional congregation appealing to young people but being decidedly anti-egalitarian. All we're left with though is that Lauren herself has an axe to grind and can't create multi-dimensional characterizations. With both stories, sadly these journalists can't get past the "make them bleed" angle. Terri Gross is so gifted at colorful, multidimensional interviews, but she doesn't quite know what to do with John Hagee's blend of horse sense and Armaggedon. Her question "Do you really take the Bible literally?" Isn't so much for Hagee as for herself. Lauren Sandler falls in the trap of needing her subjects to be one dimensional so that she can hammer home her point: Fear the new brand of young literalist traditionalists! They're so hip, and so dangerous!

But yes I agree: Christian Zionism bad. Egalitarianism good. On the other hand, am I afraid of the evangelical plot to christianize land, air and sea? That would be hard since I am one. I'm not one of "them" but I do love Jesus. There. I've just succumbed to a very assanine description of myself. Truth is I can't love Jesus on any terms other than His. Thankfully that's not set by any particular social/political agenda. What a tar baby this has become.

Daily RSS feeds

I have these links in my Firefox browser toolbox. They might reflect the ebb and flow, the back and forth, the jar and yank nature of my thinking. I don't always read them in detail. I pick and choose. If I'm missing something crucial let me know.
First Born Son-Omar
The Ekklesia Project - Home
The Revealer, a daily review of religion and the press
Bible Belt Blogger
Cold Desert
Sub Ratione Dei
Faith and Theology
Healing Iraq
Weblog - Christianity Today Magazine

Be afraid, be very afraid.

Only one moment of Moody Bible Institute's Radio station today was enough to reveal that the name of Jesus is being slandered more than ever before in America. The National Association of Evangelicals took out a full page ad in Christianity Today this month warning that Evangelicals may soon be on the "endangered species list." But then I saw this wonderfully candid comment from the NAE's president, Ted Haggard:

"We're church people. We always use fear and guilt to motivate people," Haggard told Bible Belt Blogger, punctuating the quip with hearty laughter.

You won't hear lines like that on WMBI any day soon. I wonder how much longer fear and suspicion will work to motivate Evangelicals. I can't help but think its just a mimicking of cultural signifiers. We're in a War on Terror. Be Afraid. We're in a War for Culture. Be Afraid.

There are better things to lose sleep over.

Tags: culture wars, WMBI, National Association of Evangelicals, Ted Haggard

New CSPress Blog

As you can probably tell, I've been playing with BetaBlogger's new features and picked this time to start a new blog for Cornerstone Press Chicago! I've been toying with the idea of a publishing blog for some time. So there you go.

Tags: Cornerstone Press Chicago, Blogs, BetaBlogger

Journey through Bonhoeffer to Barth

Let me now break from Bethge to describe my own introduction to Karl Barth through Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I am and forever will be a defacto theological dilettante because I arrive at interest the hard way. It took a severe jolt for me to get through Bonhoeffer's Cost of Discipleship. It was in 1995 incidently on a sixteen hour bus ride to the old Tibetan town of Chamdo. I was with a missionary group of Filipinos and we were sternly told not to draw attention to the fact that we were Christians. It was so cool to be reading subversive material! But it was the explosive content of that material that really hooked me. Believing had consequences. This will get me killed! This excited my skinny twenty one year old self.

Shortly after Martha and I joined JPUSA in 1996 I bought A Testament to Freedom. I'll never forget reading Bonhoeffer's reflections on God's proximity in the face of evil while sitting at the hospital bedside of my eighteen month old son who had just had a near fatal fall and was in all but a body cast. From A Testament to Freedom I first read about Bonhoeffer's connection to Karl Barth.

The name stayed in my memory but not enough to make me really read him. But one day down at the Harold Washington Library in downtown Chicago I came upon Bernard Ramm's After Fundamentalism: The Future of Evangelical Theology. Ramm connected the dots for me between what I knew was wrong with so much American Evangelical preaching and the obvious burdens of modern life. Ramm's book was the end of my journey to Karl Barth. (The book is all about Karl Barth in an attempt to deal with 80's Evangelical theology.) At first I randomly checked out various Barth titles from the library, beginning with Evangelical Theology: An Introduction. Then I had to own Dogmatics in Outline. But the book that blew the ceiling off my theological world was Karl Barth's sixth edition of The Epistle to the Romans. (My review is here.)

I used to say that Dietrich Bonhoeffer was my only real interest in theology. Now I don't know who is more important, Dietrich or Karl. They are very different people. Their theologies, in as much as they interact, are very different approaches. But both seek to serve the Church, which in this age is a novel concept. I still have not read through and neither do I own Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics (unless Golwitzer's selection counts). It is more important to me to get through Bonhoeffer's writings first. I said to myself years ago that I could spend my whole life with just the writings of these two men and die happy, but that hasn't proven true. If anything they have immersed me in their world of the early twentieth century. I've been coaxed in kicking and screaming. I still as yet can't bring myself to read Hegel or Schliermacher. I still haven't really cracked Georges Bernanos's The Diary of a Country Priest, a favorite of Bonhoeffer's.

Tags: Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Theology, Bernard Ramm, Church Dogmatics

Blogging Bethge's Bonhoeffer Chapter 6 Lecturer and Pastor 1931-1932

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Biography, Revised Edition by Eberhard Bethge, Fortress Press, 2000.

Chapter 6 Lecturer and Pastor 1931-1932

p. 173-256

Two quotes begin the chapter and set the tone. They involve a fear of disappointing, of getting things right with the state of German public life as such.

How is one to preach such things to these people? Who still believes them? The invisibility destroys us. . . . This absurd, perpetual state of being thrown back upon the invisible God--no one can stand it any longer. (Bethge, 173.)

Bethge writes:

“Bonhoeffer’s return to Germany in 1931 represented a break in his development that was certainly sharper than the momentous political and ecclesiastical upheaval that followed two years later. The second major phase of his career began now, not in 1933. The period of learning and roaming had come to an end. He now began to teach on a faculty whose theology he did not share, and to preach in a church whose self-confidence he regarded as unfounded. More aware than before, he now became part of a society that was moving toward political, social, and economic chaos.” (173)

At age 25 he now worked in three different fields, the academic as a lecturer at Berlin University, the pastoral as a student chaplain teaching catechism, a youth club for the unemployed in Charlottenburg and, in ecumenics, as a youth secretary for the World Alliance for Promoting International Friendship through the Churches and the Ecumenical Council for Practical Christianity (Life and Work). These two groups were seeds of what would later be the World Council of Churches.

In the late summer of 1931Bonhoeffer does a reconnaissance mission to explore these three fields before him. Isn't that just like him? Always the need to know and be in control!

Bethge again:

Bonhoeffer indeed found it difficult to subordinate himself to those who did not meaure up to his exacting standards. . . . He had an instinctive fear of being surprised by circumstances beyond his control without first having sassured himself of an alternative. it was very difficult for him simply to "believe"; indeed, he would have described such "belief" as laziness.

On July 10 in Bonn, through his friend Erwin Sutz, Bonhoeffer finally fulfilled the longing he'd held from his student days to meet Karl Barth. Karl, at 45, is twenty years older than Dietrich at this point. Bonhoeffer wrote to Sutz:
"I have, I think, seldom regretted anything in my theological past so much as the fact that I did not go to him sooner." (Bethge, 186.) The relationship between these two men is of such importance that Bethge takes ten pages to describe it! That's typical of Bethge's writing. He often breaks into the narrative with long theological summaries. But few are as important to me as these ten pages. Bethge explains that while the two hit it off Barth never really got to know where Bonhoeffer was coming from theologically until it was too late. So where Bonhoeffer saw Barth's advice and respected him highly, he also knew they could never truly be on the same page. Barth hadn't read Sanctorum Communio or Act and Being and so knew nothing of Bonhoeffer's theologia relationis or the Lutheran emphasis on the theologia crucis.
Bethge lists four stages to their relationship in which he demonstrates how each were moving in different directions personally.

"In direct contrast to Barth, Bonhoeffer concentrated on the terrifying proximity of an actively intervening God to preserve the majesty of God from being cheapened in the pulpit, and sought to proclaim him in the concreteness of grace-filled commandment." (Bethge, 182)

Catechism (186-189)
Dietrich and Franz Hildrebrandt worked together on a Lutheran catechism from July to September 1931. Bethge notes that Bonhoeffer worked on two, one in 1931 and one in 1936. He says neither were "simple or convincing as a learning tool." Not as interested in teaching as "attempting to put into words what the Lutheran faith says today. Questions and answers are designed for concentrated reading." Hildebrandt came upon Luther's Statement of Faith and this is what their catechism was based on. I wish I could post here the entire 1931 catechism from No Rusty Swords as it is hard to come by.

Cambridge (189-202)
Bethge calls this the "most momentous of the three events."
"His interest in the ecumenical movement was at first incidental, but it took such a hold on him that it became an integral part of his being. He was soon furiously involved in the internal battles about its orientation, and he defended it enthusiastically in public. The emerging world of the Protestant ecumenical movement became a vital part of his theology, his role in the church struggle, and ultimately his political commitment."

Bethge points out that unlike in Britain, it was the academics and not church officials who first advocated ecumenical involvement. With this kind of representation to the outside, profs didn't really represent the church, but as civil servants, were in lock step with the Reich. Bonhoeffer was significant because he represented a youthful academic emphasis on the role of the church, and later as a pastor in London he used his ecumenical influence to sway the expatriate churches in London against the home German churches. But that's not for a few chapters. I'm getting ahead.

Transition from theologian to Christian (202-206)
Much has been made of Dietrich's transition. I've heard it described here in the US emphasized as a conversion. Stephen Haynes (The Bonhoeffer Phenomenon) points out that Evangelical Americans have cast Bonhoeffer in their image using this transition is a touchstone. This comment from Bethge might be a cold slap for them:

"Bonhoeffer never mentioned the biographical background of this thought to his students. They learned nothing about a conscious moment of a turning point. He had always been repulsed by the pietist' deliberately told stories of their conversions. But this did not mean that he avoided making decisions whose time had come and that held the seeds of the future, including a new responsibility for the world in the final years." (Bethge, 206)

Clifford Green in Bonhoeffer: A Theology of Sociality spends ten pages (p. 140-147) on what this Transition most likely meant to Bonhoeffer personally as it relates to his theological development. Green locates "the soteriological problem of the powerful ego" as a central theme throughout Bonhoeffer's early theology. And this issue of the powerful ego is worked out of Dietrich's own personal struggles.
Green writes:

"I have already demonstrated the striking connection between the soteriological problem of the powerful ego in Bonhoeffer's theology and his autobiographical memoirs and correspondence. Without suggesting for a moment that personal concerns were the only factors influencing the shape and direction of his theology, this connection is quite apparent. In Sanctorum Communio Bonhoeffer portrays human beings created in communities of mutual love, freedom, and responsibility for on another. To be human is to be essentally social, in its interpersonal and corporate aspects. This essential sociality is turned against itself by individual and collective egotism. Self-seeking, egocentricity, the dominant will, using the other as a means to the ends of the self-these destroy the primal community. The sinful person is now alone, a "solitary lord and creator" in the solidarity of egocentric individualism. Since being human is essentially being a person in sociality, the crisis of the self and the crisis of sociality is one and the same. From this loss of true humanity in sociality people are delivered by Christ. Christ is the reality of the new humanity, personally present in the social community of the church; by his Spirit of love people are freed from the isolation of their individual egocentricity and domination of others, and bonded together in a new social community characterized by "active being for one another." Both the individual person and human community are, in the church, in the process of being made over and renewed." (Green, pg. 149)

University (207-221)
Bonhoeffer spent two years as a lecturer at Berlin University. Not only did he continue his teaching about Christ located in an anologia relationis (I don't want to lose you here, this latin refers to how we encounter Christ in the boundary situation that faces us in every human relationship) but the "Bonhoeffer Circle" that formed among his students is an example in itself of Bonhoeffer's theological praxis. He did not care about dogmatics without engagement. Christ is God's answer to human estrangement. So as early as 1932 Bethge describes the rudiments of community taking place between Dietrich and his students:

"In 1932 they lugged potatoes, flour, and veg­etables on a wheelbarrow to the Stettin train station so that they could spend the weekend together in the country, first at the Prebelow youth hostel and then in a cabin in Biesenthal. They talked theology, made hesitant attempts at spiritual exercises, went for long walks, and listened to Bonhoeffer's collection of Negro spirituals. It was the first time they had spoken about things like forming fellowship, committing themselves to organized spiritual life, and the possibilities of serving in social settlement work. But there was still a long way to go before any of this was put into practice, and everything was on a free and informal basis. Bonhoeffer did not force anything. These were the hesitant beginnings of what later took shape in Finkenwalde and in Bonhoeffer's Life Together." (Bethge, 208)

I must say that one of my favorite photos of Bonhoeffer graces the cover of Green's book. He sits surrounded by his students in 1932 and there is this beautiful mix of men and women, smiling, one playing a flute. The photo describes the beauty of the theology itself! Not cold ideology, not austere irrelevant facts, but persons----in relation!

Bethge spends ten pages describing Bonhoeffer's university lectures. Because this blog is already no doubt the longest I've ever written, I won't take the time to describe them here. Bethge says Dietrich found "delivering monologues a burden" and that "preferring student groups and seminars. . . . the further he advanced into the unknown, the more he longed for dialogue and criticism." This indicates a certain definite style and makes it all the more interesting that his lectures from this period are lost. Did Bonhoeffer himself so little value them that he did not care that they were lost? We are left with the Christology lectures from 1933 and Creation and Fall---which he gave his students permission to publish. Quite honestly I did not find Bethge's account of the lectures here terribly inviting.

So I turned to Green to immerse myself in the lectures for this blog. Granted it's mainly Christology and Creation and Fall as they relate the earlier theological works, but Green makes the valuable point that there is a stream, a definite progression and continuity in Bonhoeffer's theology (that is sociality) that anyone really wanting to know Bonhoeffer rightly must follow. I'm not going to take you into Green's text here (pgs. 105-246) because of the length(!) but I will offer one criticism. Green focuses on Bonhoeffer up to 1933 but then offers a critical evaluation of Discipleship as a major theological extension of the early theology. He completely ignores Life Together and moves into Ethics and the Prison writings. Granted, there is lack of theological attention to how Letters and Papers and Ethics relate to Sanctorum Communio and Act and Being. But to ignore Life Together is perilous! I guess we can't have everything. For an example of how Finkenwalde (and thus Life Together) is a realization and progression of Bonhoeffer's theological development I must direct you to Craig Slane's book Bonhoeffer As Martyr (pgs. 207-250).

The Church (221-238)
Bonhoeffer was ordained in the German State Lutheran Church on November 15, 1931 in the Matthew Church near Potsdam Place. He couldn't choose his own pastorate. He was assigned a chaplaincy to the students of a technical college in Charlottenburg. This effort didn't prove very fruitful. He was also assigned a confirmation class in Wedding, a Berlin district. Now things get a bit more light hearted and fun. Bethge says:

The class was out of control; the minister responsible was at the end of his tether, and in fact died several weeks later. Bonhoeffer wrote Sutz that they had "quite literally harassed [him] to death."

Bonhoeffer's success with this group of kids is really cool. It reveals a gentle patience and strength to his personality. He also began a youth club in Charlottenburg which flourished only for a brief while and then to seek a ministry in the "overcrowded slums of east Berlin" (Bethge, 231). His desire for a church there didn't work out though as his application was denied in favor of someone else. He didn't give up and found another position in the same district. Then he found out that Aryan clause would soon be applied to that church, which would have betrayed his solidarity with Jewish Christians.

During this time Bethge says that Bonhoeffer "did not join the public on the question of ethnic nationality in the church." "He was concerned with building small groups; he was not interested in publicity or journalism."(p. 233) Instead, in 1932, he got involved with some guys who would become Martin Niemoller's Pastors' Emergency League.

Bethge spends four pages on Bonhoeffer's preaching. (234-238) I assume that he was basically an itinerant during this time, filling in as a guest for different pastors. I get the sense that Bonhoeffer believed in preaching and in the power of the sermon more than most other agencies of the Church. He locates the sermon as a sacrament of the Word, though I admit I don't fully understand this. Clyde Fant has a book called Bonhoeffer: Worldly Preaching (Thomas Nelson, 1975), which is one of the first books I ever read on Bonhoeffer. It is taken up with lectures from the Finkenwalde era.

Ecumenism (238-255)
I must admit that this final section (of this chapter) on Bonhoeffer's ecumenical was the hardest of any sections to get through. I found terribly boring! Painfully boring! But before you call me a ninny let me just say that I have very little personal connection to the work of the World Council of Churches. I'm beginning to educate myself on it, largely through the work of Lesslie Newbigen. But in the circles in which I was raised, we were ecumenical but also kept anything that smacked of universalism at arms length. So my family had no direct connection to the WCC that I know of. Reading about all these seed organizations for the WCC, with their very formal and political ways of doing everything I had to fight to stay interested!

However, Bonhoeffer's involvement here provided a much needed education and placement for his relations with Bishop Bell in the coming years. In chapter eight it all becomes clear with Bonhoeffer's pastorate in London and his full engagement in the Church Struggle.

Well that's a weak way to end this chapter, I know. I only wish I had more to say about each of these sections. I hope you get a sense of how important this two year period is and how difficult it is to unpack. In the true spirit of Bonhoeffer's sociality, I really want to hear from anyone plodding through this period. Comments please!

Tags: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Karl Barth, Eberhard Bethge, Discipleship, Biography, Clifford Green, Craig Slane

Bill W. describing community in the 12 Steps

To see community through my eyes you must understand a loving community of recovering addicts.
Bill W. put it this way in the Big Book:

"An alcoholic in his cups is an unlovely creature. Our struggles with them are variously strenuous, comic, and tragic. One poor chap committed suicide in my home. He could not, or would not, see our way of life. There is, however, a vast amount of fun about it all. I suppose some would be shocked at our seeming worldliness and levity. But just underneath there is deadly earnestness. Faith has to work twenty-four hours a day in and through us, or we perish. Most of us feel we need look no further for Utopia. We have it with us right here and now. Each day my friend's simple talk in our kitchen multiplies itself in a widening circle of peace on earth and good will to men."
Alcoholics Anonymous, Third Edition, pg. 16, 1976.

"Utopia and peace on earth and good will to men" smack so trite and pollyanish, but not if you know addicts! They are all or nothing people and they must throw themselves headfirst into the kingdom or not find it at all! Thank God that he meets us at our greatest point of need.

Tags: Community, 12 Steps, Bill W.

11,448

In his book Daring, Trusting Spirit John deGruchy reveals the larger context of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's participation in the resistance against Adolph Hitler:

The losses of the Bonhoeffer family were symbolic of a far more widespread loss that was most evident to the immediate survivors of the resistance. In the months that followed the failed coup of July 1944, the Nazis executed 11,448 people suspected of being involved in various resistance groups. These were people from all walks of life - the churches, the Communist and socialist parties, the civil service, the military - who had been engaged in some kind of activity to overthrow the Nazi regime and to create a foundation for what would follow. The Nazi regime, even in its death throes, had managed to eradicate its most articulate and thoughtful opponents. (Daring, Trusting Spirit: Bonhoeffer's Friend Eberhard Bethge, John deGruchy, Fortress Press, 2006)

Keep that number in mind, 11, 448, the next time you are tempted to say "but" when referring to Bonhoeffer's Christian witness. I have heard so many sloppy arguments for why Bonhoeffer's life was wasted by the Resistance. Here are 11,448 more "wasted" lives. I recently had a gem of a book given to me titled Dying We Live: The final messages and records of some Germans who defied Hitler, Edited by Hellmut Gollwitzer, Fontana, 1960. On the other side, Dietrich Bonhoeffer would not have regarded his own decision as prescriptive in every case, shoot, most cases. Neither did he care that his name be honored or understood. He knew that he would be forever misunderstood as one more German around during the Holocaust--"numbered with the transgressors". He did not mind the stain on his name because the name of Christ was stained and he didn't mind the shame of that association.

I'd like to blog through Dying We Live at some point. Also, I picked up a review galley of What About Hitler? Wrestling with Jesus's Call to Nonviolence in an Evil World, by Robert Brimlow, Brazos, 2006 at the Ekklesia Gathering this year. I'll try to cover it when I get to the imprisonment in my Bethge blogging.

Tags: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, resistance, Hitler

the morning after the chatter of 9/11

.25 miles to the former blood alley to take my four year old girl to school.
corner one: I am solicited for money for food.
corner two: I catch sight of a newspaper headline that reads
"US in a Struggle for Civilization"
corner three: Broadway and Wilson. Nothing.
corner four: a bike rider strangely warns us all of "the coming pigeon
shit." He yells out "don't slip there." How kind.
corner five: Right turn down Clifton. The Former blood alley. On my
left is a broken bottle, shards up in the street. No time to pick it up,
I reason. No trash can in sight. Outside her school sit, stand, recline
four persons I see every day. Clients, "housing guests" who live in the
shelter that doubles as my daughter's school. They smoke and chat. I
smile and wish them a good morning. They smile back and return regards
between puffs.
Down the corridor and to the back. Left and past a broken
elevator into the beautiful sanctuary of PreK. I play a little with my
girl and we kiss. She is at home so I leave.
Back into the street. I will be human, I say to myself.
Here more smiles and good mornings.
Back at the sight of the broken glass, an unmarked (though clearly
marked with antennas and plates) police car parks over that broken
glass, though not over the shard yet.
I lean into his open window where he sits with his bullet proof
vest as full as a flotation device and his communication devices all
around, safe from Uptown, Former blood alley Uptown.
"Be careful. There's broken glass there." I point. "Just so you know."
He says thanks.
With that I'm gone. Around the corner. Back the way I came. Satisfied
with myself that I've been human to all.

I cross the intersection where nothing happened, Corner three. A mom
scuffles across the street, hurrying her young son, feeling herself
about to be crushed by a large looking truck, maybe a v10 engine. She
yells with all her might to express her existence. "I'm crossing
here!!!!" She cusses at him miserably in defense and doesn't stop until
she is across the street. She needs more muscle, she feels. Just a mom.
A damn mom in the way of his big engine. She will be heard.

I think of my country's struggle for civilization. My civilization
here--Uptown--resembles for me the same as my country's enemy. (No,
reword that. No, how?)

Here I walk commenting on all I see. As though I'm so important. My
defense against the powers. Up the street, walking my way, is a young
pretty thing that I usually can't bear to gaze upon. I must seem so rude
looking away. I look straight in her eyes and wish a good morning. There
I did it. For this morning I'm not an animal. I am civilized.

God save us all in Uptown. In our weakened place of Abandoned Empire. We
are not the pride of US civilization, but. . . . and I can only speak
for myself, there is a God greater than us all. Sometimes our surrender
to His will makes us truly human.

Tags: Uptown, Blood Alley, 9/11, "US in a Struggle for Civilization"

excuses

Junk that lays around that I can't bear to part with, that I'm downright proud of. Every time I clean and reorganize these little things are somehow hardly ever thrown away. They have an indelible mark on my psyche.


slips of paper
-notes to self
-signs made of sayings
-notes for my wallet
-book marks
-receipts
-electronic gadget manuals
-review sheets
-old book catalogs
-old pictures my wife can't stand to have around (I once had a six inch beard that caused my wife's skin to crawl but she couldn't bring herself to admit that for a long time. Now she can't stand the pictures.)

handbags
-small backpacks
-free book bags
-a gas mask bag from WWII

broken gadgets
knik knaks
shards of broken glass and shelf from a Christian's house that was bombed out in Beit Sahour
a 1960s fishing reel that bequeathed from dad
old coins that belonged to dad
crosses

door knobs: cuz I may need them some day.

The previous occupant of my office has gadgets like that too. Old ropes and pulley systems. Old animal traps. A cow horn. Old flags.


I'd like to say that these things help me establish my sense of "place" where ever I go. But I'll leave it up to my sister Jen to say with any certainty. She did her MA thesis on "Place." Whaddya think Jen? Are these things indicative of the human yearning for home?

Tags: Place, home, memory

First Day of School part 2

Coloring her dress red. This is a portrait I did of her. I drew the ears way to big. She slept on her neck wrong the night before and woke up screaming in pain. Bummer of a way to start of the first day. But she made it through. :)

First Day of School

Alathea's very first day of Pre-K.

dominionism or Vitamin L?

This scares me, but so does this. Makes me think of Matt. 11:12, (NASB)
"the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force."
Exposition on the fly.

Dusty books

For just over one week I have shuffled, handled, cataloged and surveyed hundreds of used books. It started when I heard about http://cash4books.net on Craig's List. Over the last week I have run hundreds of book ISBNs in search of a treasured few that would yield some money. A local bookstore was pitching it's overstock and some friends and I rescued a cart load of books from a sure demise on a very rainy day. On Friday I noticed that the books on an entire line of shelves at my office were getting damaged from moisture and outside debris. So today, with a friend's help, I took down that whole line of shelves and books repositioned them. My office now has a very different feel to it. Less light in certain places and more in others.
Speaking of old books, if you go to http://books.google.com there are now many free books to download. I typed in these search terms: Zwingli, Luther, Colonization, Thomas Cranmer, International Relations, and League of Nations. Got some great old books in .pdf format. You have to look for ones that say "full view" and then on the right "download."

Tags: google books, free, Cash 4 Books

The Conversation Is Over!
Why Journalists Can Be Complete Idiots When Reporting on Religious Movements

I have always been intrigued by the way a journalist can shape
conversations by virtue of what is included or ignored in a
given story. I grew into a news junky at an early age, spending quality time with my dad by combing through the newspaper. As soon as I could put words together I was writing for the little Evangelistic rag my parents were doing.

My family (which happened to be part of a Christian communal group) was in the news a lot and this was not always fun.
I’ll never forget the time we were stabbed in the back by an
undercover journalist. One time a guy from a local paper spent
a week hanging out at our house, playing with me and my
sisters, asking questions, sharing our evening meals. He was so
friendly and I opened my heart to him. When the paper came out
we realized we’d been stabbed in the back. He cozied up to us
and then wrote terribly deceitful and malicious things. I
learned the hard way that it was nothing personal. He needed a
story that bled. So he made us bleed.

When I was eighteen I became the focus of a very different
feature article. When the reporter came around I didn’t know
how to act. I remember talking his leg off, answering Giving
him way too much information. This was the moment I dreaded and
loved at the same time. A puff piece. No slant, just a day in
the life of a nice preacher’s kid. That felt completely
different. I knew the pain of being lied about, but what about
when a story is nothing but praise! It seemed to me that
neither spin gave an accurate picture. It pointed to a weakness
in popular journalism. The public doesn’t want nuance in
feature writing. They want blood or they want a pedestal.

I must admit that growing up I remained blissfully ignorant to
the ways of Cult research and investigations. Cults were bad.
Avoid your local JW or LDS and even Oneness Pentecostal unless
you want to get into a protracted conversation you can’t get
out of. Jim Jones bad. Maybe my first introduction came with a
writing assignment in Bible College when I wrote a paper on
“Why Catholicism is not a Cult.” I decided to do the paper when
I learned that a guy in the previous semester received an “A”
for a paper titled “Why Catholicism is a Cult.” I too received
an ‘A”. The instructor decided to be impartial. Later in that
class I was exposed to a video on meditation where Carol
Matrischiana suggested that India was the world’s best example
of the evil effects of Hinduism. She knew because she’d been
raised there.

That kind of silly thinking was all too rampant around college.
A missions instructor would invite a local Catholic priest in
to ask questions about his faith. The very next class would be
dedicated to debunking (behind his back) everything he said. I
was bemused to learn that the local Baptist college down the
street had our Pentecostal tongue-speaking featured in their
cults class. It seemed like God’s justice. . . neh, just human
stupidity.


This question of how and when the moniker “cult” should be used
is nothing new. In 1997 Time reported on the work of two men,
Ron Enroth and J. Gordon Melton, and their very divergent ways
of dealing with cults. Melton, an Evangelical Methodist,
represents the New Religious Movements (NRM) paradigm and Ron
Enroth, an Evangelical Presbyterian, the counter-cult paradigm.
So what’s the difference? Well, ask anyone who has been
investigated as a cult! Melton is called a cult apologist by
counter-cult groups because instead of seeking to malign and
destroy them he (surprise) wants to hear their side of things.

Somehow he has the nerve to believe that even people he
disagrees with deserve human attention. If you’re interested in
this approach, check out Melton’s own website. He describes his
differences with Enroth and others well and provides an
excellent summary of the Evangelical attention to cults in
recent history. Douglas E. Cowan of the Religious Movements Homepage Project published Bearing False Witness? An Introduction to the Christian Countercult in 2003.
That’s a title I wish I had penned myself.

John Morehead tells his own similar story in "Tired of Treading Water: Rediscovering and reapplying a missiological Paradigm for Counter-cult Ministry."

Most people cannot relate to being lied about
on some massive scale. The average local congregation is not
accused of brainwashing adherents or being a dangerous cult.
For this reason when a religious group is accused of being a
cult in the press there is usually no rush for a fact check.
Most people probably don’t think to themselves, “I wonder if
that group is really as bad as this says.” The grist has been
run. There is no putting it back in the mill. The group’s only
consolation lies in the well known public amnesia. The news
from Saturday is often long forgotten by the following
Monday---maybe especially where religion is concerned.

I care about religion coverage in the media. It would be too
easy to lick old wounds and retreat with a persecution complex.
No human agent can ever be truly unbiased in the way they spin
a story. But there are certain ethics that reputable news
sources claim to work by. If you want to know more about these
the Project for Excellence in Journalism would be a good place
to start.

Jay Rosen has written a beautiful piece upon the
launch of The Revealer titled: “Journalism is Itself a
Religion” in which he says

“the most urgent purpose of journalism [is] to amplify, clarify and
extend what the rest of us produce as a "society of conversationalists."”

This comment would seem to indicate that to mute, obscure, and
embitter folks into not wanting conversation would be downright
anti-journalistic! Journalism at it’s best opens our minds and
invites further conversation. I have learned to be wary of any
article that puts the nail in a subject’s coffin and proceeds
to read its’ eulogy.

Tags: Ron Enroth, J. Gordon Melton, New Religious Movements, Journalism as religion

Israel/Palestine footage upload planned

I have plans to upload the video footage of my 2003 visit to the West Bank: Beit Sahour, Bethlehem region.
I will post it here to my blog when done. This is, for me, some very intense, painful footage of destruction in the area. After the visit I tried to watch it and could not. You'll see what I mean. It has descriptions and commentary from my friend Samer Kokaly of the Alternative Tourism Group in Bethlehem. It will take some time to transfer it from vhs to digital but I believe will be well worth it. My sister Jen was there. She may be able to offer further recollections.

Tags: Israel/Palestine, video, youtube, upload

Jerusalem Declaration on Christian Zionism

THE JERUSALEM DECLARATION ON CHRISTIAN ZIONISM

Statement by the Patriarch and Local Heads of Churches In Jerusalem


"Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children
of God." (Matthew 5:9)

Christian Zionism is a modern theological and political movement that
embraces the most extreme ideological positions of Zionism, thereby
becoming detrimental to a just peace within Palestine and Israel. The
Christian Zionist programme provides a worldview where the Gospel is
identified with the ideology of empire, colonialism and militarism. In
its extreme form, it places an emphasis on apocalyptic events leading to
the end of history rather than living Christ's love and justice today.

We categorically reject Christian Zionist doctrines as false teaching
that corrupts the biblical message of love, justice and reconciliation.


We further reject the contemporary alliance of Christian Zionist
leaders and organizations with elements in the governments of Israel and
the United States that are presently imposing their unilateral
pre-emptive borders and domination over Palestine. This inevitably
leads to unending cycles of violence that undermine the security of all
peoples of the Middle East and the rest of the world.

We reject the teachings of Christian Zionism that facilitate and
support these policies as they advance racial exclusivity and perpetual
war rather than the gospel of universal love, redemption and
reconciliation taught by Jesus Christ. Rather than condemn the world to
the doom of Armageddon we call upon everyone to liberate themselves from
the ideologies of militarism and occupation. Instead, let them pursue
the healing of the nations!

We call upon Christians in Churches on every continent to pray for the
Palestinian and Israeli people, both of whom are suffering as victims of
occupation and militarism. These discriminative actions are turning
Palestine into impoverished ghettos surrounded by exclusive Israeli
settlements. The establishment of the illegal settlements and the
construction of the Separation Wall on confiscated Palestinian land
undermines the viability of a Palestinian state as well as peace and
security in the entire region.

We call upon all Churches that remain silent, to break their silence
and speak for reconciliation with justice in the Holy Land.

Therefore, we commit ourselves to the following principles as an
alternative way:

We affirm that all people are created in the image of God. In turn
they are called to honor the dignity of every human being and to respect
their inalienable rights.

We affirm that Israelis and Palestinians are capable of living together
within peace, justice and security.

We affirm that Palestinians are one people, both Muslim and Christian.
We reject all attempts to subvert and fragment their unity.

We call upon all people to reject the narrow world view of Christian
Zionism and other ideologies that privilege one people at the expense of
others.

We are committed to non-violent resistance as the most effective means
to end the illegal occupation in order to attain a just and lasting
peace.

With urgency we warn that Christian Zionism and its alliances are
justifying colonization, apartheid and empire-building.

God demands that justice be done. No enduring peace, security or
reconciliation is possible without the foundation of justice. The
demands of justice will not disappear. The struggle for justice must be
pursued diligently and persistently but non-violently.

"What does the Lord require of you, to act justly, to love mercy, and
to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8)

This is where we take our stand. We stand for justice. We can do no
other. Justice alone guarantees a peace that will lead to
reconciliation with a life of security and prosperity for all the
peoples of our Land. By standing on the side of justice, we open
ourselves to the work of peace - and working for peace makes us children
of God.

"God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's
sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of
reconciliation." (2 Cor 5:19)

His Beattitude Patriarch Michel Sabbah
Latin Patriarchate, Jerusalem

Archbishop Swerios Malki Mourad,
Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate, Jerusalem

Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal,
Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East

Bishop Munib Younan,
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land

Tags: Christian Zionism, Armageddon, Palestinian, justice, Michel Sabbah

Tags: Stephen Colbert, On Notice

Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson Show

This little youtube video brought tears to my eyes today. I laughed so hard I was exhausted.
For the two of you who know me from the days I worked for a UHF TV station in central Missouri. . . .I'll tell you a little inside story of a serious mistake I made one morning.

Nancy Larson used to have a Christian exercise show on TV 38 titled "Shape Up." We ran it down on Ch. 24 and 25 in Missouri. One morning around 6:30am I was running "the board" (master control board, the switches that put shows over the air) while Nancy was doing her thing. She was encouraging her audience not to quit because they can "do all things through Christ who gives them strength." She reminded them that she'd been doing the show for years and that they should take it slow if they were new. If they had heart troubles or were pregnant they should consult a doctor before joining in. The music began and she started into jumping jacks. At just that moment an ink pen rolled off of the top cabinet and landed perfectly on the fast forward button of the board. I can still imagine the people at home trying to follow along at three times the speed!

Tags: Christian Broadcasting, TV, Nancy Larsen

Are ideas bulletproof?

Are Ideas Bullet-proof?
Musings on Idea, classical liberalism, and Christian liberation in the face of postmodern evil.


I'd like to consider the main idea imparted in the movie V for Vendetta with Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving. That idea is most memorably expressed in V's words to Mr. Creedy,

"Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bullet-proof."

I think I could safely summarize the Moral of this movie (if you like Morals to tales) as the victorious freedom of Free Thought over against tyranny. You will notice in the movie that music, art collection, and satire are all illegal forms of expression unless controlled by the will of the government. The heroes of the movie correctly recognize and appreciate art for it's ability to allow the human spirit to soar above tyrrany. "V" is a classically trained antihero who wakens the public from their slumbering freedom to overthrow the tyrant by virtue of their great ideals.

Let me point out why this simple story poses no threat to contemporary Western governments. The heart of the victorious "idea" in this movie is based on a belief in human nature that came to prominence during the Enlightenment. In case you haven't been paying attention, the reigning system of the thought now is Post-modernism, essentially a critique of the modernism that had it's roots in the Enlightenment. Within postmodernism arguments are not won or lost on the basis of collective rational thought. Competing arguments each have their spheres of influence. Within America's form of liberal democracy capitalism very easily uses postmodernism for it's own purposes, namely the spread of free enterprise. Agendas that are throw-backs to modernist times are now packaged conveniently in postmodern thought for today's audience. In previous days the idea of an African American Woman representing American foreign policy would have been thought impossibly too progressive, feminist and liberal. Condoleeza Rice has broken all stereotypes as an evangelist for the new face of postmodern neo-conservativism.

To be sure, the moneyed and the powerful still have an agenda for the world. But we are hard pressed to see one single imperial power. "V" as a simple literary device can stir our passions to fight the Power. But what power? How do the money'd and powerful continue control? By distributing the power to various associations. In this way the Democratic western powers manage to further an old agenda forcing free trade on would-be players, isolating non-players, and when necessary "protecting" themselves with invasion and occupation. Power and control are exerted over time and usually in the face of resistance so that action is always in the name of defense. This way we don't feel either controlled by the powers or part of the powers.

Let me get back to "V"s statement. "Ideas are bulletproof." In "V"s world the truth of this statement has the perfect lighting and contrast. In our world we have little need for such statements. But what about an area of our world that has constant media attention, so much so that a generation has passed and we in America think we know about it so much that we aren't paying attention? I'm speaking of the military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Palestine. Have more resolutions been passed concerning this little region than any other in the history of the International Community? I would say yes. And yet what has the UN ever been able to do to stop Israel from controlling every aspect of this region? The building of the Wall? Making the resident's lives a living hell? Nothing. Israel is right in the center of America's vision for Democracy in the Arab world. America wants to force this kind of democracy on the Arab world.

Iraq is America's attempt to Occupy (like Israel's long work in Palestine) a sovereign country for it's own good. The Iraqi Occupation swears that it is the new seed of democracy that the region wants. At least the Americans are swearing that.
My friend Jon walked into my office recently and said of Hezbollah, "It is an idea. You cannot kill an idea." Well that remains to be seen. If bullets won't work, maybe psychology, greed, torture, propaganda, and "good will" will. If the American people will go along with this radical way of seeding Democracy to weed out terror long into future governmental administrations, it will take a terrible toll on our own psyches. It takes a certain kind of morality to pull of an Occupation. A lot of self delusion. The reasoning must be: "If we can't kill their new ideas we'll at least keep it from infecting our own."

The next question I would ask is how can I be different? In "V"'s world the new superhuman test experiment arises from the inferno as the moral conscience of the nation. The perfect creation intended turns against the creators as their moral superior. Where does it get this moral superiority? As I said before, it is classical training from the Enlightenment. (Not of course, taking Nietchze's critique of morality into account.) The Christian Church in the film is part of the fascist matrix of control. Christianity makes the people impotent. This is not a unique idea, and neither is it necessarily true to history or human nature. Humans are not necessarily more noble for having discarded religion.

For myself, I can't find satisfaction in an argument for human nobility out of itself. Retorting that noble actions just as easily arise from the same humans that do the evil is just exercising contradiction.
Reminds me of a Monty Python skit that went thusly:

M: I came here for a good argument.
A: No you didn't; no, you came here for an argument.
M: An argument isn't just contradiction.
A: It can be.
M: No it can't. An argument is a connected series of statements intended to establish a proposition.
A: No it isn't.
M: Yes it is! It's not just contradiction.
A: Look, if I argue with you, I must take up a contrary position.
M: Yes, but that's not just saying 'No it isn't.'
A: Yes it is!
M: No it isn't!
A: Yes it is!
M: Argument is an intellectual process. Contradiction is just the automatic gainsaying of any statement the other person makes.
(short pause)
A: No it isn't.
M: It is.
A: Not at all.

(http://www.mindspring.com/~mfpatton/sketch.htm)

The argument that faith always play victim to power doesn't work. It doesn't have to be true. I must bear witness that the opposite is true. The only way to make a stand morally and personally, as I see it, is with an active faith in the Jesus of the Bible. He alone embodies the reality of the new Kingdom that we dream of . A Kingdom of mutual submission, freedom from want, an economy of abundance, freedom for captives, healing and shared power. In worship and communion in Christ's church I'm taking part in His realities. I am becoming the kind of person able to resist the dark oppressive realities of the money'd and powerful. Ideas can be manipulated and subdued. They can be forgotten or ignored. A faithful life of service to a Higher Power effects real change.

Tags: V for Vendetta Movie Review, The Enlightenment, Post-Modernism, Politics, Anarchy, Hugo Weaving, Ideas are bulletproof

New Glasses. I call it Geek-billy or Egghead with hair on the sides.
God I can't wait til this post is buried in Archives.

Restaurant Sketch - Monty Python

And just to break things up a bit. . .

Noam Chomsky vs. Michel Foucault

part 2 of Human Nature and society discussion

Noam Chomsky vs. Michel Foucault

Fascinating conversation on Human Nature and Just society
part 1
lousy quality video but interesting discussion

Lebanon Israel Facts the Media Isn't Telling You

Good Chomsky commentary on origin of Israeli-Lebanese conflict.

When Cultures Collide

This just In!

NASCAR Audience So Desperate to Feel Adrenaline They Don't Get That They're Being Laughed At!

This whole story could be in what we in Chicago know as the Onion. But it's a true story!
On August 4th Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby opened in theatres across America. A young man who works for a lumber supply store knows Will Farrell (Ricky Bobby) and looks up the movie trailer online. Looks like a great comedy so he and the Mrs. head down to (let's say) the Wehrenberg Theatre on 247 Siemers Drive in their hometown Cape Girardeau Missouri. That's the theatre showing it on the GS Mega Screen. They thought they'd arrived early but came to find out the movie was sold out and there was a line streaming out of the building! Good thing they'd bought tickets in advance!

Once they got inside and endured the twelve minutes of premovie commercials the fun began. The couple were prepared to laugh, and laugh hard! What happened instead is now the stuff of legend. While they sat and smirked and politely chuckled at the first few jokes most of the audience sat in silence. Suddenly a young man down in front jumped out of his seat yelling, "Hey that's Atlanta Speed Way! I've been there!" The audience sprang to life with raucous approval. They'd all been there. Suddenly Jeff Gordan appears on-screen. The heretofore sedated audience cheer with such enthusiasm that our Lowe's aisle walker jolts in surprise. He swears he just saw popcorn poof in the air. The mood in the room changes for good from this point on. Someone starts the wave down on the front right. It begins and streams all over the theatre until it reaches our couple. They jump too late and he gets shoved from behind. "Retard." But the stream continues and then back twice. "What have we gotten ourselves into?" They wonder. Needless to say, this clash of cultures could be taking place as I write all across America. Perhaps tens of thousands of redneck NASCAR fans across America are going to NASCAR.com and seeing the ad for Talladega Nights. They're buying out tickets at their local theatres and turning this spoof on their culture into an anarchical red-neck sporting revolution!

Earlier on in my blog I noted that satire requires a certain kind of audience. As a Chicago city-slicker (albeit from Missouri) I get a laugh considering that in Cape these folks just don't get it. But really I think they do. They just don't care to play along. Hell, when was the last NASCAR movie that hit the big screen? I'll tell you. "Days of Thunder" with Tom Cruise in 1990. Well there was that Herbie movie a few years back. And there are all those TV specials. I'm trying to sympathize here but I can't. Come on people! This movie was made by the same people that did "The Anchorman"! I mean did all the TV broadcasters buy out tickets and root for each other? Or when Will Farrell made "Elf" did the Manhatten Christmas workers arise as one and buy out their local theatre to throw a party? Maybe, I never heard.

Anyway, I went to RickyBobby.com and I am "Chris The Clutch Master." But I won't be putting that on my Myspace page. Do check out the hilarious letters to Ricky on this site. And remember fellow non-NASCAR loving Will Farrell fan. Laugh, but the last laugh is from some red-neck on you!

Disclaimer: the facts of this story were related to me by my sister whose husband told her, who heard it from the man himself. I assume responsibility for mistaking which theatre where and whether the couple did the wave wrong or saw popcorn in the air. If anyone at this showing from Cape comes to hurt me now, "Step off! I respect your difference."

Tags: Talladega Nights, The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, NASCAR, Cape Girardeau Missouri, Movie review, satire

Me & Mylon

I know I've shared in the past some of my deep aversion for Prosperity theology, but let me relate the other side of this. Back in 1988 I was living near a little town in mid Missouri. I had just been really turned on to Jesus, with a serious salvation experience and some radical in-filling experiences with the Holy Spirit. My dad told me I nursed my Bible at the time like it was a teddy bear. He caught me running through the tall grass in front of our house, dancing in the Spirit, high on Jesus. When I came inside he asked me what I'd been doing. He said it was an embarrassment to him as he was sure the neighbors were watching. I'm sure he doesn't remember any of this now. Anyway. . . .

With some friends I began a music video TV show on NLEC's Christian TV station. One of the coolest music videos was from this band called Mylon and Broken Heart. Beginning with an interest in the videos I started buying Mylon albums every time they came out. Now you have to understand that when I listen to music I get nutso about it. That started here as a teenager. I memorized every note, every riff of the Mylon albums. (As I did with a ton of CCM music at the time. Keith Green had 24 hour nonstop play in my head. I got all his music on cassette for "whatever I could afford"--- which was nothing. I wore every tape out to where they wouldn't play anymore. My girlfriend's dad made the remark that I could have easily started a local chapter for a KG cult!)

But Mylon was more than music to me. I subscribed to his letters. I was very lonely at 16 and a real struggler. So I wrote to Mylon Lefevre. And the wild thing was that he answered me personally. At first I couldn't believe it was really him. I thought it was a stamp there instead of his signature. So I made each letter personal and asked specific questions. And he wrote back with specific answers. When Mylon and Broken Heart came to Columbia and Jefferson City, I made it to the concerts. Now Mylon was a real preacher in his concerts and he gave altar calls. So it was after a concert there in Jeff City that I went forward to recommit my life to Jesus again. I prayed with Mylon personally and just poured out my soul and asked all kinds of questions about what to do with my life and how to know if I was really following God's will---questions nobody could possibly know given the circumstances. But in a wonderfully personable way Mylon very patiently prayed for me.

A few years later Mylon got out of Rock n Roll. You can read about it on his website. He did a mellow solo album which I don't remember buying. I just read on a tribute site that while struggling with his heart condition he met up with Kenneth and Gloria Copeland. For over fifteen years now he's been hooked up with the Copeland family and has been teaching from Kenneth Hagin. That really pains me. So there you have a little connection between me and prosperity theology. I actually feel caught in tandem between these polar worlds of religious liberal and conservativism. Its an epidemic with Bible teachers. It's never enough to relate the words of Jesus. The audience must be drawn into a Kingdom here and now. Among Liberation theologians Jesus is the "yes" to a new civilization here and now. Among Prosperity teachers he is the "yes" to healing and wealth here and now. While Liberation theologians are content to "imagine" the new realities and act toward a future, prosperity teachers tell the poor that God hates their poverty and wants them wealthy now! Either way the identification with felt need is there. Trouble comes with the realization that God is much more than economics, medicine, and politics. Spirituality that focuses on these is less concerned with God's person than with what God gives. The question that should be looming in the subconscious is "What do we have when we get what we want?" Is there no more need for God? I feel suspicious of any lifestyle that needs a religio-philosophy to justify its' existence. As though its not enough to live, we need the heavens to resound "Yes, thatta boy!"

On the plus side, I do feel that Liberation theology highlights a political reading of the Bible that is intended. I don't feel it needs to be quite so forced, often times the textual criticism involved begins with a bias against history. With prosperity teachers I find it particularly inconvenient that there is a lot of evangelistic witness going on. Yes, many prosperity teachers are less prosperity than they are soul-winners, I must admit. And while I personally have spent so much time in (what felt like) manipulative spiritual meetings, I have to be honest and say that as far as I can tell the gospel is preached. It ticks me off to say that. I get angry at God that he uses people who turn around and malign the very gospel they preach. But its a human problem! I can't think of a preacher who doesn't fall under the weight of the gospel he/she preaches!

Jesus' command to "love one another as I have loved you" is alone enough to humble anyone who takes him seriously.

Tags: Mylon Lefevre, TV, Music, Prosperity Theology, Liberation Theology, Kenneth Copeland, conversion, discipleship

a Friday liturgy for fasting and prayer

The following is a little liturgy for myself and a friend that we do together on Fridays. It's largely taken from the liturgy for Good Friday (The Book of Common Prayer, 1977, pg. 276) and the Daily Office. (p. 35) The sample petitions at the end are from the cited web link.

Friday Liturgy for Fasting and Prayer

Let us pray.
Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your
family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be
betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer
death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the
Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Old Testament Isaiah 52:13-53:12, or Genesis 22:1-18,
or Wisdom 2:1,12-24 Psalm 22:1-11(12-21), or 40:1-14, or
69:1-23

Epistle
Hebrews 10:1-25
John 18:1-19:37 or 19:1-37,

The Solemn Collects

All standing, the Deacon, or other person appointed, says to the people:

Dear People of God: Our heavenly Father sent his Son into
the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world through
him might be saved; that all who believe in him might be
delivered from the power of sin and death, and become heirs
with him of everlasting life. We pray, therefore, for people everywhere
according to their needs.


Let us pray for the holy catholic Church of Christ throughout
the world;
For its unity in witness and service
For all church leaders and other ministers
and the people whom they serve
For our pastors and all the people of this church. For all
Christians in this community.
For those about to be baptized.
That God will confirm his Church in faith, increase it in love,
and preserve it in peace.

Silence

Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of
your faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our
supplications and prayers which we offer before you for all
members of your holy Church, that in their vocation and
ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you; through our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Let us pray for all nations and peoples of the earth, and for
those in authority among them;
For N., the President of the United States
For the Congress and the Supreme Court
For the Members and Representatives of the United Nations
For all who serve the common good
That by God's help they may seek justice and truth, and live in
peace and concord.

Silence

Almighty God kindle, we pray, in every heart the true love of
peace, and guide with your wisdom those who take counsel for
the nations of the earth; that in tranquility your dominion may
increase, until the earth is filled with the knowledge of your
love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Let us pray for all who suffer and are afflicted in body or in
mind;
For the hungry and the homeless, the destitute
and the oppressed
For the sick, the wounded, and the crippled
For those in loneliness, fear, and anguish
For those who face temptation, doubt, and despair.
For the sorrowful and bereaved
For prisoners and captives, and those in mortal danger
That God in his mercy will comfort and relieve them, and grant
them the knowledge of his love, and stir up in us the will and
patience to minister to their needs.

Silence

Gracious God, the comfort of all who sorrow, the strength of
all who suffer: Let the cry of those in misery and need come to
you, that they may find your mercy present with them in all
their afflictions; and give us, we pray, the strength to serve
them for the sake of him who suffered for us, your Son Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.

Let us pray for all who have not received the Gospel of Christ;
For those who have never heard the word of salvation
For those who have lost their faith
For those hardened by sin or indifference
For the contemptuous and the scornful
For those who are enemies of the cross of Christ and
persecutors of his disciples
For those who in the name of Christ have persecuted others
That God will open their hearts to the truth, and lead them to
faith and obedience.

Silence

Merciful God, creator of all the peoples of the earth and lover
of souls: Have compassion on all who do not know you as you are
revealed in your Son Jesus Christ; let your Gospel be preached
with grace and power to those who have not heard it; turn the
hearts of those who resist it; and bring home to your fold
those who have gone astray; that there may be one flock under
one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Let us commit ourselves to our God, and pray for the grace of a
holy life, that, with all who have departed this world and have
died in the peace of Christ, and those whose faith is known to
God alone, we may be accounted worthy to enter jnto the
fullness of the joy of our Lord, and receive the crown of life
in the day of resurrection.

Silence

O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably
on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the
effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquillity
the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that
things which were cast down are being raised up, and things
which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are
being brought to their perfection by him through whom all
things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and
reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for
ever and ever. Amen.

The service may be concluded here with the singing of a hymn or
anthem, the Lord's Prayer, and the final prayer on page 282.
If desired, a wooden cross may now be brought into the church
and placed in the sight of the people.

Appropriate devotions may follow, which may include any or all
of the following, or other suitable anthems. If the texts are
recited rather than sung, the congregation reads the parts in italics.

Anthem 1

We glory in your cross, 0 Lord,
and praise and glorify your holy resurrection;
for by virtue of your cross
joy has come to the whole world.
May God be merciful to us and bless us,
show us the light of his countenance, and come to us.
Let your ways be known upon earth,
your saving health among all nations.
Let the peoples praise you, 0 God;
let all the peoples praise you.
We glory in your cross, 0 Lord,
and praise and glorify your holy resurrection;
for by virtue of your cross
joy has come to the whole world.

Anthem 2

We adore you, 0 Christ, and we bless you,
because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.
If we have died with him, we shall also live with him;
if we endure, we shall also reign with him.
We adore you, 0 Christ, and we bless you,
because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

Anthem 3
0 Savior of the world,
who by thy cross and precious blood hast redeemed us: Save us
and help us, we humbly beseech thee, 0 Lord.


Confession

The Celebrant may read one of the following sentences

Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith:
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and
great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang
all the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 22:37-40

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the
truth is not in us; but if we confess our sins, God is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. 1 John 1 :8, 9

Seeing that we have a great high priest, that is passed into
the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us come boldly unto the
throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to
help in time of need. Hebrews 4: 14, 16

The Deacon or Celebrant then says
Let us humbly confess our sins unto Almighty God.

Silence may be kept.

Minister and People

Most merciful God,
we confess that we have sinned against thee in thought, word,
and deed,
by what we have done,
and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved thee with our whole heart; we have not loved
our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly
repent. For the sake of thy Son Jesus Christ,
have mercy on us and forgive us;
that we may delight in thy will,
and walk in thy ways,
to the glory of thy Name. Amen.

or this

Almighty and most merciful Father,
we have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep, we
have followed too much the devices and desires of our own
hearts, we have offended against thy holy laws,
we have left undone those things which we ought to
have done,
and we have done those things which we ought not to
have done.
But thou, 0 Lord, have mercy upon us,
spare thou those who confess their faults,
restore "thou those who are penitent,
according to thy promises declared unto mankind
in Christ Jesus our Lord;
and grant, 0 most merciful Father, for his sake,
that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life,
to the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.


The Almighty and merciful Lord grant us absolution and
remission of all our sins, true repentance, amendment of life,
and the grace and consolation of his Holy Spirit. Amen.


Sample Petitions for the General Intercessions
Originally from
http://www.nccbuscc.org/liturgy/ashwednesday.shtml
(with a few countries added as an update)

RESPONSE: Loving God, hear our cry.

That the nations of the world will be successful in avoiding wider war in the Middle East;
We pray to the Lord

That all might turn from the selfishness, hatred, and violence that can take root in our hearts;
We pray to the Lord

For leaders of nations, that the power of the Holy Spirit might grant them the wisdom to always seek justice and peace
We pray to the Lord

For those in our military who risk their lives in the service of our nation, that they might be protected from evil and harm;
We pray to the Lord

For peacemakers, that they will be successful in building bridges of peace in our world;
We pray to the Lord

For the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and Palestine that they might be protected from harm and that they might know freedom and peace in their land;
We pray to the Lord

That God might grant us the grace to address the deep causes of war, poverty, and injustice that afflict humanity today
We pray to the Lord

That each of us will be ambassadors of hope to a world oppressed by many problems;
We pray to the Lord

That our families will always be schools for peace;
We pray to the Lord

Tags: Liturgy, Fasting, Prayer, Book of Common Prayer, Ekklesia Project

"Ray" and "Walk the Line"

I finally saw the movie Ray last night, the biographical movie on the life of Ray Charles Robinson starring Jamie Fox. Billy Crystal made that comment at the Oscars that Walk the Line was the same story with a white guy. It made me want to see and compare. You might find it really silly or trivial to compare the two lives and movies but I'll do it anyway.

Ray Charles and Johnny Cash both grew up dirt poor in the South.
Ray and Johnny were both tortured by memories of the deaths of their brothers.
Both men were severely addicted to drugs just as their music careers took off.
Both men cheated on their wives on the road.
Both men became music legends for mixing and matching musical styles and reinventing their musical approach repeatedly.
That's about all I see that's similar.

Here are the BIG differences:

Ray was blind and black, Johnny was sighted and white.
Johnny was a master story teller, Ray loved story music but focused on musical innovation.
Johnny had both a father and mother who lived to old age.
Ray's father rambled around leaving his mother to care for two boys. Ray's mother died while he was a young man. He never saw her again after being sent off to a school for the blind.
Ray had to deal with being used and ripped off financially because of his blindness.
The movie Ray does not present Ray as being very personally effected by a family faith. Ray loves gospel music but we don't know how religious he is. He is persecuted for setting sensual lyrics to gospel music.
Early on Johnny's parents were deeply religious. Even as an addict he thought long and hard about faith. He had a radical conversion experience that he often talked about.
Johnny Cash is legendary for embodying the darkness and light in all people. The story telling and presentation made his mythos, his shadow if you will, much larger than the man. As a white male his strength could have been used to embody all the perfections of white America. Instead he focused on the disaffections of the marginalized. Prisoners, killers, drunkards, drug addicts, losers in love, the hypocritically faithful.
Walk the Line is different from Ray in that it bears witness to the birth of the myth Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison. Ray is more of a biography with a celebration of an innovator. It also testifies to the evils of heroin addiction. Walk the Line is a love story wherein Johnny and June fight hard and beat the odds to win each other.

Tags: Movie Reviews, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, similarities, differences, Southern

Not Being Seen - Monty Python

This is the one right Jon?

only when Christ breaks the solitude. . . .

"The conscience and remorse of a person in Adam are his ultimate grasp for himself, the confirmation and justification of his autocratic solitude. He impeaches himself and summons his better self. Yet the cry of conscience only disguises the mute loneliness of a bleak isolation and sounds without echo in the self-dominated and self-interpreted world. . . . Only when Christ breaks a person's solitude does he know himself placed in the truth."

---Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Act and Being, 137-141.

Tags: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Act and Being, self, Adam