Chris Broussard

Book Review: Transforming Church in Rural America

2010-12-02T09:13:00.004-06:00

I have mixed feelings about Shannon O'Dell's Transforming Church in Rural America, and they are similar to feelings I have toward other books that focus on growing churches.

On the one hand, I believe that there is too great an emphasis on growing urban or suburban churches with talented, gifted pastors, while rural churches struggle to find shepherds that are capable or caring. I have felt for a long time that rural churches were the neglected step children of the family of God.

On the other hand, though, I am extremely uncomfortable with marketing the church, and designing campaigns to increase attendance, membership, tithing, etc.

For the most part, O'Dell makes a compelling (and Biblical) case for pastors to follow their call into communities hungry for good leadership. The story of his own transition from mega-church to small town pastor is entertaining and enlightening.

He then uses lists, acronyms and diagrams to outline the model he developed to implement a multi-campus mega-church into rural Arkansas, and while I applaud his results, I just think that rural America has needs that are different than urban or suburban America, and that these needs should be met head on, not through systematic formulas that worked in the big city.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the book when O'Dell recounted his struggles accepting the call and then transitioning through the culture shock of taking over a small church. It's just the step-by-step plan for making every church bigger that gives me pause.

A Victim Follows the Golden Rule

2010-09-13T02:38:00.002-05:00

I don't know if Julio Diaz is a disciple of Christ, but he sure acts like one.

When he was robbed at knifepoint in New York, he gave the mugger his wallet. Then he offered the robber his jacket, saying he would be cold if he was planning to rob people all night.

It gets better from there...

Declaration of Dependence

2010-09-12T15:19:00.008-05:00

Today, I issue my Declaration of Dependence.

When I was nine years old I watched the Democratic National Convention on television. We (my mother, my brother and I) were living in a one bedroom house in rural Arkansas at the time and my mother was working at a job she hated to provide for us as best she could. The family who lived just down the dirt road from us had no indoor plumbing, and for a toilet they used a toilet seat that straddled two cinder blocks perched over a hole dug in the ground. I could sense that we were not that well off, and watching the convention was like a religious experience for me, a tent revival. The speeches and themes spoke to me and I was converted. I, at nine, was a Yellow Dog Democrat.

This would shape me for the next thirty-four years, as much of my identity was shaped by my self-identification as a Democrat. My heroes tended to think like me, and my friendships depended upon shared convictions. In my thirties, I became a newspaper editor and then went on to write editorials, waving the party flag and thinking up clever ways to point out the flaws of Republicans. I also went after conservative Christians who seemed to be missing the entire point of Christianity.

I'd also, you see, developed a theology over the years, and was struggling with what it meant to be a follower of Christ in twenty-first century America.

Questions arose, some of them raised by my children, like, "Daddy, what does allegiance mean?" When I explained that it was a promise of loyalty and devotion to a person, group or cause, my seven year old daughter told me she couldn't do that, that her allegiance was to God.

Over the past few years I have increasingly scrutinized my loyalties to government and to God. I have explored the views of the Anabaptists, the Mennonites, and the Quakers, as well as the views of the Catholics, the Baptists and the Presbyterians. I have read the work of leaders who were convinced that all Democrats were going to hell, and the work of leaders who felt it would be the Republicans taking the expressway south. And I have become very uneasy.

For years I was convinced that all Republicans were maliciously selfish, but that didn't square with some of the people I met who supported the Republican party because their conviction that abortion was murder precluded any support they could give the Democrats. These were good people with strong convictions.

At the same time, I was meeting more and more Democrats who were singularly focused on their own pet issues (gay rights, pro-choice, etc.).

Through intensive Biblical study, prayer and conversation, it became clear to me that, at nine years old, I pledged allegiance to the Democratic Party and it had become an idol. All of my faith and worship had been given to them to the exclusion of God. The Democrats could save us, I thought, if we just gave them a chance. But they never did. And they never will. And, of course, neither will the Republicans. Or the Tea Partiers.

So, today, I issue my Declaration of Dependence.

I pledge allegiance to God, as I should have done years ago. This is what the early Christians were executed for, committing treason against Rome by refusing to give their allegiance to an earthly kingdom.

Neither party seems particularly interested in the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount, or fruits of the Spirit. Both parties pursue war without counting the costs. As Shane Claiborne writes: "We vote every day by how we live, what we buy, and who we pledge allegiance to." I refuse to cast a vote that does not further the kingdom of God "on earth as it is in Heaven." (Matthew 6:10) Instead, today, I pledge to cast my vote daily, through relationship, acts of mercy and kindness, love and worship. This is really the only way any of us can change the country we live in. We have to stop waiting for Washington, D.C. to do it, because they simply do not care.

For an understanding on how I came to this Declaration, I suggest the following:

Books:

Mere Discipleship, by Lee Camp

On Civil Government: Its Origin, Mission and Destiny and the Christian's Relation, by David Lipscomb

Dissident Discipleship, by David Augsberger

Jesus For President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals, by Shane Claiborne

The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical, by Shane Claiborne

Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers: Prayer for Ordinary Radicals, by Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

New Monasticism: What it Has to Say to Today's Church, by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

God's Economy: Redefining the Health and Wealth Gospel, by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream, by David Platt

Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe, by Mark Driscoll

Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, by Ronald Sider

Organizations:

Hope & Forgiveness

2009-01-01T17:03:00.002-06:00

I've gone back and forth in my faith for the past few years. It seems that every time I do, though, I read something like this.

In San Diego, a jet crashes into a man's home, killing every single loved one. Does he sue the pilot?

No. He forgives him and prays that he will not suffer anguish.

More Good News

2008-11-06T18:26:00.003-06:00

Roy Blunt is abdicating his position as House GOP whip.

"With another election behind us, I still believe that conservative ideas define where the country wants to be and needs to be," he writes. "Yet, in part due to circumstances beyond our control, we were not successful in 2008."

Circumstances beyond their control? That's the kind of attitude that will help them lose the next round too.

Donald Miller: From Reagan to Obama

2008-11-06T17:57:00.002-06:00

I have always been a Democrat. In 1976, when I was 9 years old, I watched the Democratic National Convention, enraptured. Everything they said made complete sense to me.

Naturally, as a fan of Jimmy Carter, I was never in danger of becoming a Reagan disciple.

But a lot of people were.

A writer I greatly respect, Donald Miller, has written an essay on his transformation from Reagan Republican to Obama Democrat.

Read it here.

Obama Win Sparks Black Church Fire

2008-11-06T13:17:00.003-06:00

Are we, as a country, really going to go back down this road?

Just hours after Barack Obama became the 44th president, a black church in Springfield, Massachusetts was burned.

I've heard the "jokes," of course, about Obama being assassinated, but I pray to God that we're not going to enter a new era of racial violence and intolerance.

Traded for Bats

2008-05-24T12:49:00.003-05:00

I'll get to politics in a second, but how'd you like to be John Odom?

John Odom, a minor league ball player, was traded this past week for 10 baseball bats.

The headlines and first grafs are funny, but the story is (a little) complex. Odom had some immigration issues that prevented him from playing for the Canadian team, and was originally to be traded for a player who refused to moved to Calgary.

Unfortunately for Odom, though, he will probably be known for the rest of his life as the guy who was traded for 10 bats.

McCain Opposes GI Bill

2008-04-17T10:22:00.000-05:00

John McCain's opposition to the GI Bill appears to be rooted in a concern "that a generous education benefit would persuade soldiers and Marines ending their tours to pursue an education rather than reenlist in the overstretched military." "He's the odd man out," VoteVets chairman Jon Soltz said of McCain. "You have 55 co-sponsors on this bill, and he's not one of them. He has to lead or follow."

Murtha Says McCain Too Old

2008-04-16T15:33:00.002-05:00

Democratic Rep. John Murtha said Wednesday that Republican Sen. John McCain is too old to be president. Murtha is 75, four years older than McCain. He says they are nearly the same age, and the rigors and stress of running the country is too much for guys their age.

I think he has a point.

The presidency is hard on people. For years I've noticed the dramatic physical toll it takes on presidents, looking at their bodies age twice as rapidly as they would have otherwise.

McCain is 71. Reagan was 68 when he ran for president in 1980. Historically, though, Reagan's administration was already coming off the rails by 1984, when Reagan was 72, and Alzheimer's had already started eroding his mind.

Should there be age limits, though? Is there a point where a person's age (and only their age) excludes them from public service?

Where are the Bootstraps?

2008-04-16T13:02:00.003-05:00

I think I know why we have so many poor people in this country.

Since childhood, I (and probably you) have heard statements including the words "yourself" and "bootstraps." Or, when speaking of someone else, we hear that they pulled themselves up (or need to) by their bootstraps. So, if more Americans would pull themselves up by their bootstraps, they wouldn't have to sponge off the government. Right?

Here's the problem.

I don't own any bootstraps. Do you? Do you even know where to buy bootstraps (and you'd have to buy them, because nobody's giving them away)? I don't either. I just did a pretty extensive search online for bootstraps and all I found were some biker/s&m type things that I don't believe apply in this case.

So, how the hell are people supposed to pull themselves up by their bootstraps if they can't get any bootstraps? Imagine a dialogue like this:

Poor Person: God, I'm so broke. My life is caving in around me!
Disinterested Person: Well, maybe you should just pull yourself up by your Hank Aaron Rookie Card.
Poor Person: Where can I get one of these Hank Aaron Rookie Cards?
Disinterested Person: You should already have one.
Poor Person: I don't.
Disinterested Person: Then you need to get one.
Poor Person: But I don't know where to get one.
Disinterested Person: Then you're just lazy. I knew it! Moocher!

Somebody. maybe Wal-Mart, needs to look into this and import some bootstraps from other countries. I bet China has them! Without bootstraps, I'm afraid, poverty is going to continue to rise.

2007-09-01T01:31:00.000-05:00

I couldn't make it up if I tried. This is currently for sale on eBay.

2007-04-27T14:29:00.001-05:00

"In this way, in increments both measurable and not, our childhood is stolen from us -- not always in one momentous event but often in a series of small robberies, which add up to the same loss." -- John Irving

Into Great Silence

2007-04-20T21:08:00.000-05:00

This weekend, I plan to see Into Great Silence at the Plaza Frotenac here in St Louis. It's a quiet, pastoral documentary about the lives of Carthusian monks in remote France.

Watch the trailer here.

Change of Direction

2007-04-20T20:56:00.000-05:00

Time for a change.

For a long time, this blog was a repository of my editorial columns. At one point, I had thousands of readers, from all over the world.

Then came the 2004 election, and I lost faith. I tried to regroup, but I just couldn't, and my disgust with the whole Washington circle jerk festered until it seemed I would never read another newspaper.

I've gotten a little better, and am back to reading the New York Times, the St Louis Post-Dispatch and Time magazine, though I do not devour the political coverage like I used to.

My interests have changed.

So, I have a choice: either leave this blog out there, whipping in the wind, essentially dead, or change it along with my interests.

I've chosen the latter.

I have embraced the arts more than I used to. I've always been a voracious reader, a connoisseur of music and a lover of films. I have dabbled in photography and some of my work has been well reviewed.

And then there's the writing.

Since my early teens, I have wanted to write a novel. Fear and excuses have kept me from this dream, but no longer. I am currently developing a novel that has stuck with me for a long time and preparing myself mentally and physically for the endurance race that will be required to complete it.

So, this blog will now reflect my changing focus: the progress of my book, music I love, movies I've seen or want to see and so on. If this doesn't interest you a whit, please feel free to move on. Otherwise, I'll see you in my posts.

A Turning Tide?

2006-10-04T08:06:00.000-05:00

A week ago I was reading the Election Scorecard over at Slate and thinking that the Republicans were going to, yet again, snatch the election and eventually, no doubt, save my soul and teach me to vote for the white, upper middle-class Jesus who favors tax cuts and war. This, of course, left me quite pensive and, well, depressed.

Then a gift dropped on our laps. Mark Foley, Florida congressman, homosexual and pedophile, was brought down by lurid emails and instant messages between himself and teenagers working as pages for congress.

This is just the story to bring me out of my hiatus.

I have a few comments on this:

Following the ABC report, Foley checked himself into rehab. Color me cynical, but I suspect that this is just way to hide from the press for thirty days.
From CNN: "Foley's attorney, David Roth, said Foley had never had sexual contact with a minor and said any assertion that Foley is a pedophile is 'categorically false.'"

Okay, we've seen this one before. It's only a matter of time until victims start crawling out of the woodwork.

Also from CNN: Roth added that "Mark Foley wants you to know he is a gay man."

Well, this sets homosexuality back about 20 years. All evidence suggests that gay men are not usually pedophiles.

"Though the attorney would not provide the religious affiliation of the clergyman who allegedly molested Foley, Foley lists his religion as Catholic, according to a congressional directory."

This whole "I was molested by clergy at a young age" defense lacks any imagination whatsoever, which, of course, is not atypical for a republican.

Then, there is the whole vast left-wing conspiracy rhetoric being tossed around. As usual, it's not that a criminal act occured, it's that someone reported it to the media. Who to blame, who to blame? I know, the Democrats! I'm surprised they haven't blamed Bill Clinton yet (it's coming). Again, from CNN: "In addition to expressing his support for Hastert, Boehner also wrote in his letter to the editor (of the Washington Post) that the timing of the allegations against Foley was odd." Get that? The timing of the allegations (which, incidentally, Foley has admitted to) was odd. Not the criminal behavior of a U.S. congressman, just the timing of the truth coming out.

Well, in the aftermath of this, at least the dems will get a one seat gain in the house. The republicans have put another shill up in Foley's place, but Foley's name will still be on the ballot (not the new guy's). Only a diehard republican voter would, I believe, check the box (or touch the screen) of a pedophile.

Good things those "family values" people are running the show.

Back from the Dead

2006-08-29T12:35:00.000-05:00

Wow.

It's been one hell of a summer, and my blog has pretty much been in an ICU unit.

The truth is, I needed a break. I got so infuriated at the news media's servile stance that I completely unplugged for a few months.

Now I'm plugged back in and it's the same crap, with the mid-terms on the horizon.

So the blog is back, open for business.

Killing the Infidels for Points

2006-06-02T13:18:00.000-05:00

Oh. My. God.

I just stumbled across this, but apparently it's been around for a while. I don't have time to read it thoroughly now, but plan to later. In the meantime, I encourage you to read about it.

A company is developing a video game aimed at the "christian" market, where players praise the lord while killing the infidels.

Really.

You need to read it to believe it.

Dixie Chicks are Still Pissed

2006-05-23T15:38:00.000-05:00

They're not ready to make nice, goddammit! Good for them!

I bought this CD the first day it came out, as a show of support.

States of Ignorance

2006-05-19T00:56:00.000-05:00

According to 50 separate but concurrent statewide opinion polls conducted by SurveyUSA, only three states have positive job approval numbers for the president - Utah, Wyoming and Idaho - making Utah, Wyoming and Idaho numbers one through three on my list of states to avoid at all costs.

Here's a beautiful map, courtesy of Whiskey Bar:

Ironweed Films

2006-05-18T13:33:00.000-05:00

I want to recommend something to my progressive friends.

Ironweed is a subscripton service that, each month, sends a DVD to you for only $14.95. The DVDs are progressive documentaries and in recent months have included Street Fight, Salt of the Earth, Seoul Train, Power Trip, Wetback and, this month's selection, The Education of Shelby Knox.

My wife and I have found the DVDs to be well made and very thought-provoking and a great value.

Find out more about Ironweed here. Or, cut to the chase, and subscribe here.

William Blake

2006-05-17T19:54:00.000-05:00

In the universe, there are things known, and things that are unknown, and in between there are doors. - William Blake

2006-01-31T09:46:00.003-06:00

About 300 public high-school districts are considering offering a course based on the book The Bible and Its Influence. The textbook looks at the Bible’s influence through the history of Western civilization.

2006-01-31T09:46:00.002-06:00

Well, it seems that Christian professional wrestling is taking off in the Bible Belt. According to this story, Ultimate Christian Wrestling is a hit in Southern states where attendees can see sweet body slams and hear the Gospel

2006-01-31T09:46:00.001-06:00

A Pennsylvania man must pay a visit to the county elections board to explain why he signed his voter registration form “God.” Paul Sewell said that his signature is more of a legal mark than official signature but added that “it shouldn’t be a problem” with the elections board. And, yes, “God” is a republican.

2006-01-31T09:46:00.000-06:00

There is an interesting story in The Christian Science Monitor about how religion is growing in Africa, especially Christianity and Islam. Another trend in several West African countries is a blending of the two religions; click here to read the article …

Christians and the SOTU

2006-01-31T07:39:00.000-06:00

The Los Angeles Times has an article about evangelical Christians across the country who are gathering at State of the Union “watch parties” tonight.

The article discusses various political trends in the evangelical community and how, in spite of the perception that all Christians have Republican voting cards, many in fact have differing views on the issues that Bush will be addressing tonight

Wendell Berry on Rats & Roaches

2006-01-25T13:10:00.000-06:00

"Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy." - Wendell Berry

From SojoMail

Jesus Christ Action Figure

2006-01-20T10:38:00.000-06:00

You know you want it.

The commercial is hilarious.

Today in History

2006-01-16T00:05:00.000-06:00

Prohibition started at midnight in 1920, a move growing out of American evangelical attempts to reform the nation's morals. Sacramental wine was excluded from the ban, and its sales rocketed.

In 1327 the Archbishop of Canterbury deposed King Edward II. The former king was then killed in a way far too unsavory to put into words. Suffice it to say that if I were to do so they would have to include "red hot poker" and "where the sun don't shine".

Today in History

2006-01-15T00:24:00.000-06:00

Today is the feast of St Paul the Hermit. A contender for the position of first Christian hermit, he was so holy that when he died two lions came and helped dig his grave.

The original church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, built by Emperor Constantius (though not single-handedly), was burned down in 532 in a riot in protest against the docrine that Christ had two natures. This made way for the building of the Emperor Justinian's awesome cathedral, which still exists, but is now a museum.

Martin Luther King was born at 501 Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia, today in 1929. This is now an official holiday in the United States.

"The church must be reminded that it is not the master of the state or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state."
-- Martin Luther King

Today in History

2006-01-14T12:21:00.000-06:00

Today was the popular medieval "Festival of the Ass", a theatrical representation of the biblical flight to Egypt.

Muslims in Bradford burned Salman Rushdie's "Satanic Verses".

Lewis Carroll, children's writer, Cambridge maths lecturer and son of a clergyman, died in1898.

"There's glory for you!"
"I don't know what you mean by 'glory'," Alice said.
"I meant, 'There's a nice knock-down argument for you!'"
"But 'glory' doesn't mean 'A nice knock-down argument'," Alice
objected.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, "it
means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less."

-- Lewis Carroll, "Through the Looking-Glass"

President Bush's Speechwriter Speaks!

2006-01-13T21:56:00.000-06:00

This is freakin' hilarious. Andy Dick plays Bush's speech writer.

Watch it here.

The Return of a Friend

2006-01-13T15:12:00.000-06:00

I was pleasantly surprised today to learn that Crap & Drivel, one of my favorite blogs, is back up and running. C&D features the rants and rabid insights of a friend of mine (I wrote about him in a previous post). He dropped off the planet for awhile (a change of jobs was inevitable, as you'll see from his blog).

Please be warned, Crap & Drivel is definitely adult reading material, but it is wonderful stuff, more so for me perhaps because I know the man behind the curtain.

Pat Robertson: Please Forgive Me (and put my theme park back on track)

2006-01-13T09:44:00.000-06:00

Pat Robertson sent a letter of apology to Omri Sharon, son of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, asking forgiveness for his moronic and offensive remarks.

Robertson wrote, "I ask your forgiveness and the forgiveness of the people of Israel for remarks I made at the time concerning the writing of the holy prophet Joel and his view of the inviolate nature of the land of Israel."

Might have something to do with Israel pulling the plug on the "Christian Themepark" project headed by Robertson.

Money talks, bullshit walks.

Today in History

2006-01-13T02:43:00.000-06:00

George Fox, the earliest leader of the Quakers, died in 1691. His revolutionary spiritual idea was that everyone has an inner light from God. This convinced him that the Bible is of secondary importance, that outward rituals like baptism are pointless, that all people are equal, that women can preach, and not to take his hat off to his betters.

In 1547 the Council of Trent published its decree on justification. It rejected Protestant ideas of justification by faith alone (as it understood them), and insisted that being right with God depends on real lived-out righteousness rather than fictional righteousness. In fact behind the misunderstandings and different definitions there's little difference between the two sides, but unfortunately it took four centuries for anyone to notice.

Today is St Mungo's Day, a 6th-century evangelist in Scotland and Cumbria.

Pat Robertson's Wallet Smote by God

2006-01-11T17:42:00.000-06:00

Israel is refusing to do business with Pat Robertson, the leader of a right-wing coalition to build a Christian “heritage center” (read "theme park") in Israel’s Galilee region, after he said that Ariel Sharon’s stroke was divine punishment.

Think he'll go on TV and say something to the effect of, "God has smote me for running my big mouth. I would just say, Woe unto any televangelist who shoots off his big mouth."

Doubtful.

Today in History

2006-01-11T01:05:00.000-06:00

In 1569, the first state lottery was started in England. Christian opponents to its latter-day successor might be interested to hear that the tickets were sold from the West Door of St Paul's Cathedral.

Thomas Hardy died in 1928, aged 88. His extraordinarily beautiful novels and poems are pervaded with a lifetime's angry disappointment with God for not existing.

O man-projected figure, of late
Imaged as we, thy knell who will
survive?
Whence came it we were tempted to create
One whom we can no longer keep
alive? -- Thomas Hardy, "God's Funeral"

Today in History

2006-01-10T16:44:00.000-06:00

William Laud was executed. He was the first Anglo-Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury, and best buddies with King Charles I. The Puritan Parliament hated him so much for making their churches smell Catholic that after they failed – not surprisingly – to convict him in court of treason, they simply passed a law saying that they could take his head off anyway, which they did at Tower Hill, 1645.

In 314 St Callistus died of natural causes, and so became the first Pope not alleged to have been martyred.

In 381 Emperor Theodsius outlawed all religion in the Roman Empire other than the Christianity of the Nicene Creed, confessing "the single deity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit". Rome became a one religion empire.

James Dobson on Congress & Gambling

2006-01-09T12:08:00.000-06:00

James Dobson: "If the nation’s politicians don’t fix this national disaster, then the oceans of gambling money with which Jack Abramoff tried to buy influence on Capitol Hill will only be the beginning of the corruption we’ll see. Some religious leaders want new ethics rules for Congress, but that’s only a band-aid fix. Politicians need to root out this infection. Gambling – all types of gambling – is driven by greed and subsists on greed. That makes it morally bankrupt from its very foundation. Gambling creates addicts, breeds crime and destroys families. We need courageous office holders who will begin the process of shutting down lotteries, casinos and other gambling outlets."

Today in History

2006-01-09T00:15:00.000-06:00

An unsuccessful Lollard uprising hit London in 1417, led by Sir John Oldcastle, a thin, devout, moralistic man, immortalised by Shakespeare as the fat, debauched, godless robber, Falstaff. The Lollards (literally, "mumblers") were disciples of John Wyclif, rejecting transubstantiation and the Pope and wanting English Bibles. If they'd patented their theology, they could have made a fortune off the Protestants 100 years later.

Hadrian VI became Pope in 1522. The would-be starter of the Counter-Reformation, he was neither popular enough nor long enough at Rome to achieve the reforms he wanted. One reform he did successfully implement, though, was banning the clergy from wearing beards.

Today in History

2006-01-08T01:08:00.000-06:00

Vikings attacked Lindisfarne and destroyed the church before they were repelled and shipwrecked, in 793. Within 50 years they had done the same to most of the towns, churches and monasteries of the British Isles.

In 1198, Pope Celestine III died. A powerful Pope, he once kicked the German Emperor Henry VI's crown off his head while Henry was kneeling before him, just to emphasise who really held power in Europe.

Galileo Galilei died in 1642. His invention of the telescope forced him to cast doubt on the theological doctrine that the sun and moon are smooth, perfect and immutable spheres in tuneful orbit around the earth.

Today in History

2006-01-07T00:26:00.000-06:00

Today is the Church of England's birthday. This day in 1531, the English bishops accepted Henry VIII as Supreme Head of the Church of England, instead of the Pope, allowing him to ditch his wife and find another better at bearing males.

In 367, Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria and champion of the deity of Christ, wrote a letter to his followers in which he listed which writings they should consider truly biblical rather than just a good read. This was the first time anyone hit the spot on the 27 books of our New Testament, no more, no less.

It is St Lucian's Day, a 4th-century priest and martyr. According to a late legend he was drowned at sea and his body returned to land by a pious dolphin.

You Can Hear the Voice of God! Guaranteed!!!

2006-01-06T13:05:00.000-06:00

Rev. Mark Virkler, Ph.D., president of Communion With God Ministries and author of over 50 books, is guaranteeing that his latest release, How to Hear God’s Voice (Destiny Image, $24.95), will ensure every reader who follows the steps described will hear the voice of God for themselves. Dr. Virkler says that two decades of conducting seminars on this topic on six continents with a virtual 100% success rate, and Jesus’ own promise that “My sheep hear My voice” (John 10:27), have given him the confidence to make this guarantee.

Read the press release here.

Justice Sunday 3: The African-American Edition

2006-01-06T12:44:00.000-06:00

Take a look at this piece over at Talk to Action, which profiles the way conservatives are embracing a smoke and mirrors stance on civil rights. They, you understand, are the real warriors for civil rights.

Max Blumenthal is the author of the piece, and he looks at the conservative revisionist history that's propelling Christian activists like Tony Perkins, Chuck Colson and Justice Sunday" at a black, inner-city church in Philadelphia.

Tony Perkins, Blumenthal explains, paid for David Duke's phone bank list and spoke before the white nationalist group Council of Conservative Citizens. And Reverend Wellington Boone, formerly of Promise Keepers fame, sees Uncle Tom as a role model and has written that, "when you see it God's way," slavery was "redemptive."

Read the rest here.

Today in History

2006-01-06T08:26:00.000-06:00

Today is Epiphany, celebrating the arrival of wise men seeking Jesus (in the Western Church), or the baptism of Jesus (in the Eastern Church).

This was also the date that Pope Pius XI chose in 1928 to issue the Bull Mortalium Animos, forbidding Catholics to discuss theology with Protestants.

In 1622 Gregory XV created The Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, HQ for Catholic mission to pagans and Protestants. From its Latin name, the word "propaganda" entered the English language.

That most popular of transvestite military saints, Joan of Arc, was born in Domremy in Lorraine, France. Why not celebrate with a day of cross-dressing?

Victorian super-preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon was saved in 1850. Already desparate to know how to be saved, he couldn't get to his usual church because of a snowstorm, and stopped at a Primitive Methodist chapel. The minister being snowed in, a "really stupid" shoemaker preached instead. His text was "Look unto me and be saved", and he could only drag it out for 10 minutes because all he had to say was, "Look to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! You have nothin' to do but to look." It was enough.

Pat Robertson: God's Judge on Earth

2006-01-05T15:55:00.000-06:00

The ever-ubiquitous right-wing "evangelist" Pat Robertson said that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was a consequence of “dividing God’s land.”

“I would say woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course," Robertson said. He added that God said, ‘This land belongs to me, you better leave it alone.’” (The video is at Media Matters)

You know, I have a problem with any pastor who says "woe unto".

Today in History

2006-01-05T12:31:00.000-06:00

Today is the Feast Day of St Simeon the Stylite, a 5th-century monk who achieved quite terrifying heights of holiness, sat on a 72 foot pillar for 36 years, feeding maggots to his self-inflicted wounds. "The first to achieve solitary confinement in public" (Edith Simon, "The Saints").

In 1527 Felix Mantz was executed by Protestant authorities in ZŸrich, Switzerland, at 3 o'clock on Saturday afternoon, for being rebaptized as an adult. He was drowned (spot the irony) in the River Limmat, his mother calling encouragement from the river bank.

Trinity Broadcasting Cans Hal Lindsey (Shouldn't he have seen this coming?)

2006-01-05T12:15:00.000-06:00

Trinity Broadcast Network, stronghold of theological integrity that it is, has cancelled Hal Lindsey's weekly television program, "International Intelligence Briefing." It seems the network was concerned that Lindsey, author of The Late, Great Planet Earth might offend Arabs and Muslims with his fiery pro-Israel stance and his dogged insistence that Islam is an inherently violent religion. A TBN representative told reporters that TBN now has a 24-hour Arabic station and sees itself as a global ministry. Therefore, they need to be more cautious in their witness to Muslims.

Did nobody at TBN read Lindsey's work beforehand? He certainly hasn't changed his views much in the last 35 years.

Mouse Marketing Comes to Church

2006-01-05T12:07:00.000-06:00

Out of Ur has a post on the efforts of Disney to market The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe from the pulpit. Read it here.

What Happened to Bruderhof?

2006-01-05T11:55:00.000-06:00

In earlier posts, I've listed The Bruderhof as one of my primary sources of inspiration. The site had scores of books you could download, including some by Kierkergaard and Dostoyevsky. Recently, when I went to the site, all I got was this:

Bruderhof Communities
We welcome visitors at all our
communities.
To contact the community nearest you, write
to:
Woodcrest
2032 Rt. 213
Rifton, NY 12471
845-658-8351 (USA)

A quick check of their sister sites found the same message. It is a shame that this resource seems to be gone. I suggest you go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine and put in www.bruderhof.com and get as much of the material onto your hard drive as you can before it's gone for good.

Did Congress Have the Same Intel?

2005-12-15T18:17:00.000-06:00

President Bush has said (time and again) that Congress saw the same intelligence he did in the lead-up to the war in Iraq. So Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) asked the non-partisan Congressional Research Service to look into the matter and report back whether or not what the president said is true.

They reported back today.

The verdict: not true.

Read it yourself.

Jim Wallis: Betraying Jesus

2005-12-15T18:12:00.000-06:00

Evangelism in our day has largely become a packaged production, a mass-marketed experience in which evangelists strain to answer that question that nobody is asking.

So says Jim Wallis, in an essay that I encourage you to read here.

'Christmas Scandal' Outcry

2005-12-15T16:47:00.000-06:00

From the Chicago Tribune:

Christian activist Rev. Jim Wallis told hundreds of religious protesters gathered near the Capitol on Wednesday that there is a scandal this December, but it isn't the conservative-stoked controversy about retailers and others using "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas."

Read the article here.

More Than 100 Arrested in Capitol Protest

2005-12-15T16:44:00.000-06:00

From the Associated Press:

U.S. Capitol Police arrested 115 religious activists who were protesting a House Republican budget plan's cuts in social programs when they refused to clear the entrance to a congressional office building Wednesday. "These are political choices being made that are hurting low-income people," said Jim Wallis, the event's organizer and founder of the Christian ministry group Sojourners. "Don't make them the brunt of your deficit reduction and fiscal responsibility."

Whose Side is God On?

2005-10-15T11:53:00.000-05:00

More people are exploited and abused in the cause of religion than in any other way. Sex, money, and power all take a back seat to religion as a source of evil. Religion is the most dangerous energy source known to humankind. The moment a person (or government or religion or organization) is convinced that God is either ordering or sanctioning a cause or project, anything goes. The history, worldwide, of religion-fueled hate, killing, and oppression is staggering. – Eugene Petersen, in the introduction to the book of Amos in The Message.

Campolo & McLaren: Prophets or Agitators?

2005-10-09T11:51:00.000-05:00

I’ve been an admirer of Tony Campolo for a long, long time. When I say a “long, long time” I mean since the late eighties. In the early nineties, I read one of his books, 20 Hot Potatoes Christians are Afraid to Touch, and it made a lot of sense to me at a time when I was struggling with some hot potatoes of my own. I read every book of his I could find, breathing them in as fresh air in a climate of religion that I was becoming increasingly discouraged by.

Brian McLaren is a new voice to me. I’ve read some of his stuff online, and of course I’ve heard a great deal about him, but I really haven’t known what all the buzz is about. Since he and Campolo travel in the same circles, I’ve given him some credibility based on my admiration of Campolo.

Leadership Journal has a blog now, called Out of Ur. They’re running a four-part blog conversation with Campolo and McLaren, and part one is here. I encourage you to read it in its entirety.

UPDATE: Part two is here and part three is here.

Some Resources

2005-09-21T17:36:00.000-05:00

As I struggle with what it means to be a follower of Christ, I still turn to some familiar sources. The Bruderhof gives me hope. The Ekklesia Project gives me strength of conviction. Jesus Radicals gives me a theology of radical conviction and Sojourners shows me that there are people who feel like I do, that Christianity as we know it is not necessarily the Christianity of Jesus Christ. Finally, Real Live Preacher is the only blog I check everyday for new content.

I encourage you to check out each of these sites and dig into their resource sections. Bruderhof and Jesus Radicals have some excellent reading materials. You may not agree with everything they say, but read it with an open mind and you may find yourself questioning some of your convictions.

Even when they call us mad, when they call us subversives and communists and all the epithets they put on us, we know that we only preach the subversive witness of the Beatitudes, which have turned everything upside down to proclaim blessed the poor, blessed the thirsting for justice, blessed the suffering. – Oscar Romero, May 11, 1978

Real Live Preacher

2005-09-21T14:16:00.000-05:00

Even in despair, there are moments of beauty and insight. This post from Real Live Preacher is one I’ll be reading several times over the next few days.

Earth to God, Come in God...

2005-09-21T10:16:00.000-05:00

So, my posts have petered out to almost nothing lately. If you've noticed, God bless you. The fact is, I've been so self-absorbed for the past few months that I haven't had the energy to share my neuroses with you, or anybody else for that matter. I hope to change that in the days ahead, but don't hold your breath.

My sister died recently, moving death closer to me.

My father died when I was young, so young that I have no memory of him. I remember my mother getting a phone call in the middle of the night and then getting my brother and me out of bed to tell us. My brother (seven years older) sobbed while I sat still as a stone, confused as to how I should feel. My mother and father had divorced a few years earlier and he'd remarried, so I really had no knowledge of him. It was out of this subsequent marriage that my sister, Stormy, was born.

My grandmother died about six years ago, but I really had no feelings for her. She'd been a bitch to me all my life and I knew when she passed I would feel nothing, and I was right.

This has been the extent of my experience with death (other than a couple of cats, a dog and a few dozen hamsters). I knew that by getting married and having children (I have five) that I was exponentially increasing the chances that death would show up sooner than later.

My brother, 45 years old, was deployed to Iraq last year with his National Guard unit and I was afraid he was going to become my first funeral. Then my brother-in-law went to Iraq with the Air Force, and I worried that he'd be it. But both came home safely (physically, at least).

Then, unexpectedly, my sister died.

She was 36 years old and had lived a miserable life. Born diabetic, she was plagued with health problems throughout her life. She was sexually abused by an uncle when she was a pre-teen and told by her mother to keep quiet and pretend everything was normal. She got married young, found that she could not have children, got divorced and then remarried and then divorced. She was chronically sad. She died, officially, from complications due to diabetes. I believe she died because she'd had enough. Sadness has its limits.

I, of course, am 38 years old and haven't had it much better. I was sexually abused by a family friend and tried for 15 years to pretend that everything was normal. I got married at 18, divorced at 28 and remarried. I, of course, have had no trouble reproducing, but to what end? Most days I am a ghost in the lives of my children, floating through halls of depression while they play obliviously. I am chronically sad and angry.

Faith, which used to sustain me, is non-existent. I try to tell myself and my wife that I still have faith, but it just isn't true. Christians annoy the shit out of me, frankly. I recently explored Buddhism, thinking it was the practical side of Christianity without the wackos who gather in Christ's name. But, you know what? Buddhists are whacked too.

So, I press on, cautiously moving through a dense forest of tangled vines, looking for God and friendship and security and happiness. Stormy pressed on through her own foreboding forest, but she didn't find any of these things. She died alone, unmarried and without children, and left no legacy at all. She will not be remembered by this world for the most part. Which begs the question: Why was she here at all? I know it's a cliche to ask where God is in these kinds of things, but I think it's a damn good question. Why make people who are destined to spend their lives in misery? It seems kind of cruel when you get right down to it.

So, God, I'm here. And I really want to know you. But I'm having a really hard time cutting through the shit that your followers spew. Are you listening to me?

Earth to God, Come in God...

Castaway

2005-09-20T21:00:00.000-05:00

Too many blogs are narcissistic rants aspiring to poetic heights. Every once in a while, though, I come across one that stops me in my tracks.

This one did it.

What is Friendship?

2005-08-21T01:27:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking a lot about friendship lately.

As a rule, I'm a pretty lousy friend. Abusive betrayal as a child, and continued betrayal as an adult, has left me scarred and generally untrusting of others and, thus, unwilling to risk any additional trauma.

Let me give you an example.

A few years back, when my depression was heavier than it had ever been and I felt that I couldn't continue feeling the way I did, I became suicidal. All my thoughts were focused on ways to do the deed while minimizing the trauma to my family. During this period, a "friend" of mine from church (he was one of the pastors) found out about my situation and called me to see how I was doing. I was already at rock bottom, so I figured, "What the hell?" and opened up to him, explaining in as much detail as I could how and why I was feeling the way I was. He, being a card-carrying Christian and all, said he'd pray for me. But then came the kicker. He added that he was going to "walk through this" with me, even if it meant driving me to my psych appointments and waiting in the lobby for me or picking up my meds. I told him I didn't want to be a burden and he told me that Christians were called to bear the burdens of others. He kept telling me that he was going to "walk through this" with me. I hung up the phone feeling a little better and somewhat encouraged. That was two years ago this month and I haven't heard from him since.

Typical.

Usually, I've made friends through my wife's friends. She'll meet a woman and I, by the rules of couple-dom, wind up stuck with the husband.

This has never worked out well.

Before we moved to St. Louis a few months back, I had two friends. One was a co-worker and the other was a friend through my wife, a man who went to our church.

Now, the friendship with the husband of my wife's friend should have been closer. Hell, we car pooled for about four months and talked about everything from families to politics to religion. When we left, he hugged me. I haven't heard from him since.

The friendship with my co-worker is another story. Jon Jackson worked in my department as a supervisor, but had this edge to him that immediately drew me to him. In a room full of deludedly career minded idiots, he saw things the way I did. We talked occasionally and when there were corporate events we'd gravitate toward one another. I liked Jon and it seemed that he liked me. However, as you can see from his blog, he's a pretty angry guy and part of me always suspected that he might be holding back on his criticism of me, waiting for me to leave so that he could skewer me like he'd done my superiors and co-drones. When I left the company, we exchanged contact information, but, honestly, I never expected to hear from him again. I was wrong. Jon has contacted me frequently to update me on his life and to offer encouragement on mine. I've invited him to visit us in St. Louis and he has said he intends to. I hope he does.

So, maybe my problem has been that I've looked for friendship in the wrong crowd. Every "friend" I've ever made at church has let me down, too busy with their own lives and interests to bother with me. Jon, and for that matter any other real friend I've made over the last 18 years, was more of a drinking buddy type, someone I could honestly talk to without faking anything.

So pass the tequila. From now on, I'm looking for friends at the bar.

And saving a stool for Jon.

Blessing the Bombs

2005-08-04T11:18:00.000-05:00

Normally I don't post long essays unless I wrote them, but this is so powerful, I had to post it in its entirety. It's from Bruderhof and their Daily Dig.

Father George Zabelka, a Catholic chaplain with the U.S. Air Force, served as a priest for the airmen who dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, and gave them his blessing. Days later he counseled an airman who had flown a low-level reconnaissance flight over the city of Nagasaki shortly after the detonation of “Fat Man.” The man described how thousands of scorched, twisted bodies writhed on the ground in the final throes of death, while those still on their feet wandered aimlessly in shock—flesh seared, melted, and falling off. The crewman’s description raised a stifled cry from the depths of Zabelka’s soul: “My God, what have we done?” Over the next twenty years, he gradually came to believe that he had been terribly wrong, that he had denied the very foundations of his faith by lending moral and religious support to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Zabelka died in 1992, but his message, in this speech given on the 40th anniversary of the bombings, must never be forgotten.

The destruction of civilians in war was always forbidden by the church, and if a soldier came to me and asked if he could put a bullet through a child’s head, I would have told him, absolutely not. That would be mortally sinful. But in 1945 Tinian Island was the largest airfield in the world. Three planes a minute could take off from it around the clock. Many of these planes went to Japan with the express purpose of killing not one child or one civilian but of slaughtering hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands of children and civilians—and I said nothing.

I never preached a single sermon against killing civilians to the men who were doing it. I was brainwashed! It never entered my mind to protest publicly the consequences of these massive air raids. I was told it was necessary—told openly by the military and told implicitly by my church’s leadership. (To the best of my knowledge no American cardinals or bishops were opposing these mass air raids. Silence in such matters is a stamp of approval.)

I worked with Martin Luther King, Jr. during the Civil Rights struggle in Flint, Michigan. His example and his words of nonviolent action, choosing love instead of hate, truth instead of lies, and nonviolence instead of violence stirred me deeply. This brought me face to face with pacifism—active nonviolent resistance to evil. I recall his words after he was jailed in Montgomery, and this blew my mind. He said, “Blood may flow in the streets of Montgomery before we gain our freedom, but it must be our blood that flows, and not that of the white man. We must not harm a single hair on the head of our white brothers.”

I struggled. I argued. But yes, there it was in the Sermon on the Mount, very clear: “Love your enemies. Return good for evil.” I went through a crisis of faith. Either accept what Christ said, as unpassable and silly as it may seem, or deny him completely.

For the last 1700 years the church has not only been making war respectable: it has been inducing people to believe it is an honorable profession, an honorable Christian profession. This is not true. We have been brainwashed. This is a lie.

War is now, always has been, and always will be bad, bad news. I was there. I saw real war. Those who have seen real war will bear me out. I assure you, it is not of Christ. It is not Christ’s way. There is no way to conduct real war in conformity with the teachings of Jesus. There is no way to train people for real war in conformity with the teachings of Jesus.

The morality of the balance of terrorism is a morality that Christ never taught. The ethics of mass butchery cannot be found in the teachings of Jesus. In Just War ethics, Jesus Christ, who is supposed to be all in the Christian life, is irrelevant. He might as well never have existed. In Just War ethics, no appeal is made to him or his teaching, because no appeal can be made to him or his teaching, for neither he nor his teaching gives standards for Christians to follow in order to determine what level of slaughter is acceptable.

So the world is watching today. Ethical hairsplitting over the morality of various types of instruments and structures of mass slaughter is not what the world needs from the church, although it is what the world has come to expect from the followers of Christ. What the world needs is a grouping of Christians that will stand up and pay up with Jesus Christ. What the world needs is Christians who, in language that the simplest soul could understand, will proclaim: the follower of Christ cannot participate in mass slaughter. He or she must love as Christ loved, live as Christ lived and, if necessary, die as Christ died, loving ones enemies.

For the 300 years immediately following Jesus’ resurrection, the church universally saw Christ and his teaching as nonviolent. Remember that the church taught this ethic in the face of at least three serious attempts by the state to liquidate her. It was subject to horrendous and ongoing torture and death. If ever there was an occasion for justified retaliation and defensive slaughter, whether in form of a just war or a just revolution, this was it. The economic and political elite of the Roman state and their military had turned the citizens of the state against Christians and were embarked on a murderous public policy of exterminating the Christian community.

Yet the church, in the face of the heinous crimes committed against her members, insisted without reservation that when Christ disarmed Peter he disarmed all Christians. Christians continued to believe that Christ was, to use the words of an ancient liturgy, their fortress, their refuge, and their strength, and that if Christ was all they needed for security and defense, then Christ was all they should have. Indeed, this was a new security ethic. Christians understood that if they would only follow Christ and his teaching, they couldn’t fail. When opportunities were given for Christians to appease the state by joining the fighting Roman army, these opportunities were rejected, because the early church saw a complete and an obvious incompatibility between loving as Christ loved and killing. It was Christ, not Mars, who gave security and peace.

Today the world is on the brink of ruin because the church refuses to be the church, because we Christians have been deceiving ourselves and the non-Christian world about the truth of Christ. There is no way to follow Christ, to love as Christ loved, and simultaneously to kill other people. It is a lie to say that the spirit that moves the trigger of a flamethrower is the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ. It is a lie to say that learning to kill is learning to be Christ-like. It is a lie to say that learning to drive a bayonet into the heart of another is motivated from having put on the mind of Christ. Militarized Christianity is a lie. It is radically out of conformity with the teaching, life, and spirit of Jesus.

Now, brothers and sisters, on the anniversary of this terrible atrocity carried out by Christians, I must be the first to say that I made a terrible mistake. I was had by the father of lies. I participated in the big ecumenical lie of the Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox churches. I wore the uniform. I was part of the system. When I said Mass over there I put on those beautiful vestments over my uniform. (When Father Dave Becker left the Trident submarine base in 1982 and resigned as Catholic chaplain there, he said, “Every time I went to Mass in my uniform and put the vestments on over my uniform, I couldn’t help but think of the words of Christ applying to me: Beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing.”)

As an Air Force chaplain I painted a machine gun in the loving hands of the nonviolent Jesus, and then handed this perverse picture to the world as truth. I sang “Praise the Lord” and passed the ammunition. As Catholic chaplain for the 509th Composite Group, I was the final channel that communicated this fraudulent image of Christ to the crews of the Enola Gay and the Boxcar.

All I can say today is that I was wrong. Christ would not be the instrument to unleash such horror on his people. Therefore no follower of Christ can legitimately unleash the horror of war on God’s people. Excuses and self-justifying explanations are without merit. All I can say is: I was wrong! But, if this is all I can say, this I must do, feeble as it is. For to do otherwise would be to bypass the first and absolutely essential step in the process of repentance and reconciliation: admission of error, admission of guilt.

I was there, and I was wrong. Yes, war is hell, and Christ did not come to justify the creation of hell on earth by his disciples. The justification of war may be compatible with some religions and philosophies, but it is not compatible with the nonviolent teaching of Jesus. I was wrong. And to those of whatever nationality or religion who have been hurt because I fell under the influence of the father of lies, I say with my whole heart and soul I am sorry. I beg forgiveness.

I asked forgiveness from the Hibakushas (the Japanese survivors of the atomic bombings) in Japan last year, in a pilgrimage that I made with a group from Tokyo to Hiroshima. I fell on my face there at the peace shrine after offering flowers, and I prayed for forgiveness—for myself, for my country, for my church. Both Nagasaki and Hiroshima. This year in Toronto, I again asked forgiveness from the Hibakushas present. I asked forgiveness, and they asked forgiveness for Pearl Harbor and some of the horrible deeds of the Japanese military, and there were some, and I knew of them. We embraced. We cried. Tears flowed. That is the first step of reconciliation—admission of guilt and forgiveness. Pray to God that others will find this way to peace.

All religions have taught brotherhood. All people want peace. It is only the governments and war departments that promote war and slaughter. So today again I call upon people to make their voices heard. We can no longer just leave this to our leaders, both political and religious. They will move when we make them move. They represent us. Let us tell them that they must think and act for the safety and security of all the people in our world, not just for the safety and security of one country. All countries are inter-dependent. We all need one another. It is no longer possible for individual countries to think only of themselves. We can all live together as brothers and sisters or we are doomed to die together as fools in a world holocaust.

Each one of us becomes responsible for the crime of war by cooperating in its preparation and in its execution. This includes the military. This includes the making of weapons. And it includes paying for the weapons. There’s no question about that. We’ve got to realize we all become responsible. Silence, doing nothing, can be one of the greatest sins.

The bombing of Nagasaki means even more to me than the bombing of Hiroshima. By August 9, 1945, we knew what that bomb would do, but we still dropped it. We knew that agonies and sufferings would ensue, and we also knew—at least our leaders knew—that it was not necessary. The Japanese were already defeated. They were already suing for peace. But we insisted on unconditional surrender, and this is even against the Just War theory. Once the enemy is defeated, once the enemy is not able to hurt you, you must make peace.

As a Catholic chaplain I watched as the Boxcar, piloted by a good Irish Catholic pilot, dropped the bomb on Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki, the center of Catholicism in Japan. I knew that St. Francis Xavier, centuries before, had brought the Catholic faith to Japan. I knew that schools, churches, and religious orders were annihilated. And yet I said nothing.

Thank God that I’m able to stand here today and speak out against war, all war. The prophets of the Old Testament spoke out against all false gods of gold, silver, and metal. Today we are worshipping the gods of metal, the bomb. We are putting our trust in physical power, militarism, and nationalism. The bomb, not God, is our security and our strength. The prophets of the Old Testament said simply: Do not put your trust in chariots and weapons, but put your trust in God. Their message was simple, and so is mine.

We must all become prophets. I really mean that. We must all do something for peace. We must stop this insanity of worshipping the gods of metal. We must take a stand against evil and idolatry. This is our destiny at the most critical time of human history. But it’s also the greatest opportunity ever offered to any group of people in the history of our world—to save our world from complete annihilation.

This article is excerpted from a speech George Zabelka gave at a Pax Christi conference in August 1985 (tape of speech obtained from Notre Dame University Archives). The first two paragraphs are from an interview with Zabelka published in Sojourners magazine, August 1980.

2005-08-01T14:01:00.000-05:00

Continuing on the theme below, this picture comes from Real Live Preacher:

As RLP points out:

"First, you don't just chance upon a flag like that at Walmart. Someone at this church had to decide to get the really, REALLY big flag from wherever it is that people buy real big flags. So this was an intentional move, not some accident or some misunderstanding on the part of some committee. This is the message they want to send.

Second, don't you wonder if there is a cross, or some stained glass, or some kind of sacred symbol behind that flag?

Third, is it possible that no one in leadership at this congregation had any second thoughts about this? What if a Christian from another country, say Iraq, happened by and wanted to attend worship. Would they feel welcome in this place? Would they feel a kinship with their brothers and sisters in Christ?

Finally, whatever happened to the first commandment - Thou shalt have no other gods before Me? Covering your church with a flag creates a very frightening symbol. When the state and the church become enmeshed, it is bad for both of them."

Agreed, brother.

The United States of Christianity

2005-08-01T13:22:00.000-05:00

Lest you have any doubts that Christendom laid down with the whore of imperialism and came up with a bad case of crabs, I present the U.S. Christian Flag:

If I need to detail the many ways this is wrong, then you're probably reading the wrong blog and nothing I can say will change your mind, but allow me to make a few comments.

First, let me encourage you to go to their site, and make sure you let the page load, which will bring up a song, "American Christian", by one Michael Combs. Make no mistake, the song is horrible by all standards of songwriting, and is exceeded in audacity only by the amateur production quality. Regardless, it will no doubt find itself among the frontrunners for the new national anthem when all the lower-case-christians take over, waving their newly adopted flag.

Dig further into the site, of course, and you can order your very own copy of the American Christian Flag, for only $50 (US currency only, please).

Folks, lower-case-christians need to be stopped. They're spreading like cancer and reproducing like crazy.

2005-07-31T01:34:00.000-05:00

"For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course that's Moses, not Jesus. I haven't heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the beatitudes, be posted anywhere." - Kurt Vonnegut

2005-07-03T01:36:00.000-05:00

"Most problems in contemporary churches can be explained by the fact that members have not yet decided to follow Christ."— Dallas Willard from "The Spirit of the Disciplines"

Sen. Danforth: Onward Moderate Christian Soldiers

2005-06-30T01:44:00.000-05:00

This has been circulated for a couple of weeks now, and I've meant to post it. Forgive me if you've seen it elsewhere.

Former Republican Senator John Danforth on Christianity and Politics.

2005-05-19T07:56:00.000-05:00

I've thought for sometime that there needed to be a "Christian" reality show. Think "American CCM Idol". Can you imagine the backstabbing and bitchiness?

Well, check out http://megsoapbox.blogspot.com/2005/03/intern.html, for a great reality show pitch.

Pro-Life, Where are the Choices?

2005-05-04T13:31:00.000-05:00

Since the Supreme Court decision on Roe vs. Wade in January of 1973, a large percentage of U.S. citizens have been enmeshed in a conflict over whether the rights of the mother or the rights of the unborn child take precedence in abortion decisions.

Women who seek the right to choose to have an abortion have been derided and attacked, labeled selfish and promiscuous and condemned to Hell for their attitudes. Politicians have won or lost elections based on their own views of the issue, and the abortion question has been used as a litmus test for federal court appointees under more than one president. Pro-life advocates are demanding federal intervention to end abortions immediately, while pro-choice proponents oppose any legislation whatsoever.

Beneath all of the rancor, however, rest contradictions that pro-life forces refuse to recognize.

When fingers are pointed at women on the pro-choice side, devaluing their morals and standards, males are suspiciously left out of the arguments. When addressing abortion, sexual ethics and the relationship between men and women must be questioned. The legalization of abortion was, on one level, the further abandonment of women by men.

Men continue to dominate women through sexuality while outside of marriage taking no responsibility for their progeny. Female promiscuity has been discussed, debated and giggled about in spades, but until male promiscuity is condemned by our society, men will continue to use and then leave women. It is reckless power, and it is unjust.

It is simply unconscionable to argue that a 14-year-old girl who is unattractive and outside the social clique of her high school, suddenly dated by a teenage boy and falling over herself in love in a need for approval, can be said to have had anything but rape happen to her following her first sexual experience with that boy. Should this same young woman find herself pregnant several months later, the decision -- the choice -- is all hers. The boy will most likely be long gone.

At the same time, it is completely irresponsible and without credibility to attack women who choose abortion without offering them alternative choices and assistance.

The issue as generally framed by both pro-choice and pro-life groups is untenable because it assumes that the woman -- and the woman alone -- is ultimately responsible both for herself and for any child she might carry.

Statistics and personal experience show that women choose to have abortions for two basic reasons: the fear that they cannot handle the financial and physical demands of the child and the fear that having the child will destroy relationships that are important to them. In both of these cases, the woman who chooses abortion does so not because she is exercising her free choice but because she feels she has no choice. We cannot continue to tell women that they cannot make choices to alleviate their fears while offering no tangible solutions. It makes no sense.

There are over half a million churches in the United States and most of these sit empty six days a week. Many of them have nursery and pre-school facilities, and all of them preach a gospel of brotherly love and helping our neighbors. Why, then, do so many single mothers struggle to find day care for their children? Since almost every religious and philosophical belief system tells us to care for one another, what is the issue?

When you cut through the rhetoric of the abortion debate, you quickly realize that abortion is not a question about the law. Abortion is a question about what kind of people we are in a civilized, progressive and enlightened society.

What kind of choices can we each make, individually, to give a woman considering abortion a real choice?

Will we take unwed teen mothers into our homes, love them and feed them, provide for their medical care and then care for their baby as our own when it is born?

Can we maintain our pro-life integrity if we don't?

Can we support and hold accountable politicians who advocate universal health care, progressive welfare, equal and accessible education for all, job training and child care tax credits?

Can we maintain our pro-life integrity if we don't?

Will we demand that Washington shore up WIC, Head Start and other programs that have been shown to improve the lives of children and their parents?

Can we maintain our pro-life integrity if we don't?

And finally, can we love our neighbors as ourselves, remembering the "least of these" and building community through caring and sharing and loving one another?

Can we maintain our pro-life integrity if we don't?

We cannot simply throw the issue of abortion in the faces of women and say, "You decide and you bear the consequences of your decision."

As a society, our response to the abortion issue must be to shoulder the responsibility to care for women and children. We cannot do otherwise and still be "pro-life."

If we close our doors in the faces of women and children, then we close our doors in the faces of ourselves.

2005-04-19T13:38:00.000-05:00

I was raised in an ultra-conservative Christian environment and was taught from my earliest memories the tenets of the Christian faith as truth. At the same time, as I progressed through my school years I was taught the history of America as truth. Security was to be had in both of these belief systems and I repeatedly met people in my early twenties who disbelieved one or both of my fundamental yardsticks of truth, only to leave me shaking my head and wondering why they were so confused.

Time has changed my willingness to accept truth at face value.
While the foundation of my beliefs has progressively been compromised in adult years by the termites of reason, the subjectivity of truth began to consume my thinking during the presidential election of 2004. It was during this time that I was told that to be a Christian meant that you were a Republican, and that to be pro-life you had to be pro-death penalty. Things that seemed to be obvious lies were coming from the current administration, and yet millions of my fellow citizens accepted them at face value. In a study conducted just before the election by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA), there was a clear dichotomy between the realities and perceptions of truth by Bush supporters and the supporters of John Kerry. Bush supporters consistently held false beliefs about the state of the world and what was going on it. They took these beliefs into the voting booths with them and—in spite of an ill-planned, unnecessary and costly war, climbing gas prices, a plunging economy and overall national pessimism—ushered Mr. Bush into the White House for a second term.

This has unhinged me. Since the election I have become more and more skeptical, testing everything for evidence to back up its assertion, and have come to the conclusion that true statements are possible, but not in areas that matter. Is there a God? While I'd like to think so, I’m not certain, and neither is anyone else. Will our spouses remain faithful and our children loyal throughout the years? As much as we'd like to believe that, it's impossible to ascertain. Are all people inherently good? Most are, but some aren't. Are they inherently bad? Some are, but most aren't. I have carefully turned every stone of belief in the past six months, and found not one that could stand up to scrutiny and be established as truth without doubt. Oh, sure, the sky is blue, although this has been challenged as well. But, as I said before, in matters that matter, nothing is without doubt.

My skepticism isn't new. Early in Western Philosophy, a Greek Philosopher named Pyrrho of Elis accompanied Alexander the Great as he moved east toward India. A disciple of Hellenistic philosophy, Pyrhho suddenly found himself exposed to other contradicting philosophical belief systems and quickly found that his own could not withstand attack. He became overwhelmed by his inability to determine rationally which school of thought was correct and only found peace when he was able to admit to himself that it was impossible to know the truth.

It could be argued (and has) that truth is to be found in science. D.N.A. tests, to cite one example, are offered as infallible proof of parentage. But, as Thomas Kuhn points out in his 1970 book The Structure of Science, science operates within its own prevailing paradigm that determines how the questions of truth will be asked and answered. While in college, Kuhn asserts, students learn this paradigm and learn to disregard anything that doesn't fit easily into it. This keeps even the absolutes of science subjective within a controlled set of parameters.

In the end, truth is subjective and relative. Almost any statement that seems undeniably true can be quickly dismissed based on the experiences of the persons involved. While the loss of certainty leaves me with yet another door in my life closed, it has also opened another into a room of healthy skepticism, where the things I can be most sure of are things that have been tested, re-tested and found close enough to my idea of truth to become a part of who I am.

Maybe this is all that we should expect of this world. Maybe it’s enough.

2005-02-07T08:07:00.000-06:00

And if your brother becomes poor, and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall maintain him; as a stranger and a sojourner he shall live with you. Take no interest from him or increase, but fear your God; that your brother may live beside you. You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. I am the Lord your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God. (Leviticus 25:35-38)

If Peace is Impractical, so is Christianity

2005-02-04T13:52:00.000-06:00

I get letters. Boy, do I get letters. My favorites lately are from self-described Christians who assail my recent columns on peace, informing me of my naiveté and explaining in a frankly un-Christian-like way that Jesus’ teachings on peace can be ignored because, while great in theory, they are impractical.

I find this incredibly ironic. The Christian faith is, in and of itself, impractical, but that does not exclude us from living it out.

Let’s examine the practicalities of Christianity.

We believe in and worship a God we cannot see, touch, taste, smell or hear (audibly). We believe that an unmarried teenage virgin was selected to give birth to the son of this invisible and infinite being. We know nothing of His life between the ages of 12 and 30 years old, yet we accept that Jesus Christ never committed a sin, because the Bible, a book filled with inconsistencies and contradictions, says so. We believe that Jesus was killed and then rose from the dead, visited and dined with friends, showed his wounds to the skeptical and then ascended into Heaven. None of this is practical, much less believable. Yet, despite the fact that our faith is built on the unexplainable, Christians reject the idea of peace as “unrealistic”.

Rejecting pacifism as a component of the Christian faith is, at its base level, the result of choosing logic as our moral compass. More than this, though, it is a rejection of the teachings of Christ. In Matthew 5:9, Jesus says, "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they will be called sons of God". This clearly means that those who strive for peace receive special favor from God and are His children. Please note that Jesus does not guarantee that being a peacemaker will result in peace. The opposite is clearly implied. The more we strive for peace, the more oppression we will likely face. Turning the other cheek will probably not cause your opponent to walk away cursing himself. Walking an extra mile with your enemy does not mean he will loosen your load along the way. Offering your coat to a thief does not mean that he will not demand your wallet and your car as well. It is probable that your acts of kindness in the face of hate will cause you to suffer. This is not only impractical, it is also painful. Yet, we are asked to do it because Christ did the same. “Take up your cross and follow me,” Jesus says in Matthew 16:24.

So, from a logical perspective, pacifists have everything to lose. But, for the Christian, to lose is to gain. In the passage mentioned above, Jesus goes on to say, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus presents peaceful responses to suffering. The world tells us to curse, condemn and hate those who wrong us. Jesus says to do the opposite. In Matthew 5:34, He says, “…love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you”. Bless them, He says. Do good to and for them. Most importantly, love them. As Christians, we do not have the option to respond in any other way. Loving our enemies is a true reflection of the unconditional love of Christ within us and acknowledges the humanity and Christ within our enemies.

But, hey, maybe some of us would like to be Christians and leave the teachings of Christ out of it. If so, we can look to James, Peter and Paul to find the same message.

In James 3:18, we read that righteousness is a product of peaceful living. In connecting righteousness with peacemaking, James is making two profound observations. First, as Christians, seeds of righteousness must be planted nonviolently, "sown in peace" so that godly fruits may grow. Encouraging discord and choosing to fight our enemies will not spread the word of God because we will not be a witness for God as a loving Father. Second, James points out that sowing the seeds of righteousness is the responsibility of peacemakers. We cannot spread the Word of God while participating in violence. As Christ illustrated in the parable of the planter in the field, sowing the seed of Christ with strife would be like ravaging the soil and expecting a plentiful harvest.

Peter, in 1 Peter 2:20-21 says “…But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” Christ was not only our savior, he was our example of obedience to God.

And then there’s Paul. In Romans 12:19, Paul instructs us “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.” He adds, in verse 21, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Contrary to current thought, Christians have no biblical “mandate” to "bring justice" to those who have wronged us. In fact, later in Romans, Paul says that the only people open to the judgment of the church are those who are within it. We are called to live in peace with everyone.

Finally, in Hebrews 12:14, Paul puts it as succinctly as possible. “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.” We are to seek peace with everyone. This includes the victims of crime as well as the perpetrators of crime.

As Christians, we do not have the option to decide to follow select teachings of Jesus Christ that have passed our own individual litmus tests and been filtered through a worldview more suited to our own likes and dislikes. Regardless of whether it is practical or realistic, Christians are called to be followers of Christ, not of the world. We are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. The Lord is reflected not only in our words, but in our actions as well.

It’s not easy. But the right thing seldom is. For a people of faith, we must look at peace in much the same way we look at God. We cannot see it on the horizon and sometimes it is hard to understand, but we must strive to live for it as if it was right beside us and made perfect sense.

Peace is "Anti-American"

2005-02-03T11:47:00.000-06:00

Military recruitors are free to solicit your kids, but not pacifists.

A Tennessee high school has forbidden Veterans for Peace to return to its school, saying that the group's materials (mostly of a Quaker persuasion) are anti-American and anti-military.

Welcome to the machine that is the United States of Capitalism and Empire.

Mandate, My Ass

2005-01-28T08:18:00.000-06:00

I have had it up to here with this daisy chain talk of a mandate. For the first few weeks after the election, I gritted my teeth as the word repeatedly dripped off the lips of the cable news shills, believing that good sense would soon set in and everyone would see how ridiculous it was. Unfortunately, things here in Wonderland are still upside down, as I heard the Mad Hatter use the term again just last week.

Friends have spent the past couple of months in a daze, shell-shocked really, and now I feel that the inauguration has brought us a semi-closure, with the realization setting in that, yes, he really is going to be president for four more years.

In the meantime, Democrats in Washington have cowered back to their local watering holes while Republicans have issued calls for unity and harmony (an aquiescent unity and harmony, mind you). See, we’re all one big happy family now. Right?

Wrong.

The American people are not in agreement with this whole mendacity.

George W. Bush won 51 percent of a voting population that was only 60 percent of the eligible voters. So, to clarify, Bush won the approval of 31 percent of the eligible voters, while Kerry won 28 percent of the eligible voters. 40 percent did not cast a ballot, saying, in effect, that they approved of neither candidate. A large percentage of those who did vote, I suspect, felt the same way but voted regardless. How is this a decisive victory? If the will of the people in this grand democracy of ours was followed, then we’d have no president at all.

The President will continue pushing this “mandate” of his until we stop him. It is true that he had more votes than Senator Kerry, but to the vast majority of the electorate he did not represent a clear choice. Over half of all Americans said, in polls conducted over the second half of 2004, that they objected to the war in Iraq. Since neither candidate stood up firmly against the war, these voters were effectively disenfranchised.

So, fellow Democrats and Progressives. Shore up. Harness that anger, grief, frustation and disappointment and use it to fuel an anti-war movement and bring our troops back home.

Freed of this sideshow we call a democratic election, we can now direct all of our energy to speak clearly and agressively about what needs to be done to put America back on track.

It will take fortitude, make no mistake. We cannot worry about offending that minority of religious and political fundamentalists who invoke God in support of mass murder and imperial conquest while ignoring Biblical injunctions to love thy neighbor, beat swords into plowshares, and care for the poor.

Americans do not want war.

Americans want the wealth of the United States to be used for human needs—healthcare, schools, children, housing, work, clean food and environment—rather than for nuclear submarines and bombers. They are tired of politicians telling them they can’t afford the basic needs of Americans while writing multi-billion dollar checks for aircraft carriers.

I think Americans can be fooled for a while, especially when the media pumps a steady stream of government propaganda into their homes leaving them confused as to who the real enemy is. But, they’ll catch on. Empathy will overpower them. Americans care about other human beings.

In the first years of the Vietnam war two-thirds of the nation, who had blind faith in their government and total trust in a subservient press, were supportive of the war. Later, when the reality of what we were doing in Vietnam became clear, they turned against the war.

The US government will not be able to hide the reality of what we’re doing in Iraq for much longer. Soldiers are going to Iraq innocent and coming home scarred, physically and mentally (if they come home at all). They are good and decent people from our churches, schools and jobs who are being brutalized by war, bombing houses and mosques, turning cities into rubble and driving families from their homes into the desert. Some have been pushed to their individual extremes and have tortured helpless prisoners and shot wounded Iraqis.

Photos are beginning to appear (mostly in the foreign press), telling the story in pictures that words cannot. A child lies on a cot in a dirty hospital with missing limbs. A mother wails for the dead baby in her arms. A crying child cradles his mother’s exploded skull on his lap. This, America, is not liberation. This is the latest chapter in a long story of a military power using massive weapons to subdue and control a smaller, weaker country through sheer cruelty, which only increases the resistance. It is a futile policy that will only get worse with time.

As during the Vietnam war, we must confront the horror of this situation not from the sidelines but on the field, with bold actions.

Demonstrations, prayer vigils, picket lines, parades and acts of civil disobedience are required to appeal to the good consciences of the American people.

At the same time, a national debate needs to occur, one that is not met with cries of anti-patriotism. In this debate, we need to decide, as a country, who we are and what we value. Do we really want to be hated by the rest of the world? Do we really have the right to invade other nations, promising liberation from tyranny while killing them in large numbers? Do we have the right to occupy a nation when the people of that nation clearly do not want us there?

America needs to remember that it is not alone on this globe. 96 percent of the world’s population lives outside the United States.

We will not be protesting alone. There are many organized social groups who have been protesting this war from the outset. Additionally, allies are to be found within the situation itself. CIA agents are anonymously writing books of “imperial hubris”, soldiers are refusing to fight on moral grounds, “whistleblowers” are exposing corruption that runs rampant in the contractors working in Iraq, and people are asking more and more questions.

The Bush administration is an arrogant one and will continue to move us closer and closer to the cliff. All the more reason to stop them now.

I believe change is coming. I believe that we will tire of war, of seeing our wealth squandered, of watching people starve to death. I believe that we will come together to provide health care, jobs, living wages and a sense of dignity for all Americans.

I believe that we, the American people, have our own mandate. And it trumps Mr. Bush’s.

Waging Peace

2005-01-25T15:43:00.000-06:00

When I was five-years-old, my favorite toy was a G.I. Joe, and I had all of the accoutrements that went along with it—the Jeep with anti-aircraft gun attached, the helicopter with missiles that fired and a candy-store assortment of guns and grenades. My mother and father had both served in the military, as had my grandfathers, uncles and cousins. As a child, I was taught to admire these men and women who had given their all to protect the United States from its murderous foes. When my older brother turned 18, he was encouraged to join the military to learn character and discipline. As I approached my 18th birthday, I was likewise courted by the different branches of the armed forces. I chose, instead, to seek peace.

I have yet to meet someone who likes war. I have family members and friends who are currently in the military and they tell me that they are as much against war as I am, and see their mission as peacekeeping. When forced to fight, they will, but their goal is to wield might to prevent the fight.

Most of us want a peaceful world. Given a choice, we would much rather see conflicts resolved before fists fly. We would prefer diplomacy to be exhausted before our sons and daughters set one foot on the battlefield. We would prefer that our neighbors get along rather than shoot it out.

Why, then, do we wage war after war after war? Walter Wink, in his book Engaging the Powers, argues that western culture is deeply committed to what he calls the myth of redemptive violence. According to Wink, we believe that violence, force and coercion, applied appropriately and with the right motives, has the power to bring about social redemption.

So maybe we are, as some argue, violent by nature. Maybe we need war to define who we are. We seem to want peace, but can’t help viewing the world and other people in terms of conquest. Maybe we are pre-wired to see things in terms of winning and losing, having and not having, us versus them, good guys and bad. It would be easier to believe that it’s due to genetics or certain social conditions. How else could we explain, let alone solve, our willingness to tackle conflict violently? A basic review of world history will quickly show that we aren’t the first civilization to try to make things right through the use of force.

Maybe it’s fear, scarcity, selfishness, injustice, a thirst for power, or even a noble desire to protect such ideals as freedom and justice. But, the fact remains that despite our public abhorrence of killing, we too easily justify the use of violence.

Violence isn’t necessarily a product of Lockheed-Martin or the military industrial complex, however. We are prone not only to defend ourselves, but to find an assortment of ways to strike out at others when they make life in any way uncomfortable for us. We threaten, gossip, call the police, sue, divorce, file complaints, rage, kick and scream, and whatever else it takes to keep those we don’t like at a distance.

When we talk about peace, what are we really talking about? Do we really mean that we just want order? As long as our own self-interests are being served, we cry out for “Peace”. We are civil to others as long as they don’t disturb the illusions we live by. As long as no one trespasses on our turf, we are nonviolent. But if we feel threatened, we fight back.

The right thing always seems to be the hardest to do. It’s hard to live consistently, but it is essential if we are to make our world a less violent place. Protesting is one thing, but living in a way that actually counters the very thing we are against is another. In fact, it's useless to protest war if our lives and lifestyles betray our rhetoric. If we’re honest, most of us aren’t very willing to give up the good life we enjoy. Consequently, we keep fueling the very fires of war we wish to extinguish. We want to own what we have, enjoy our creature comforts, maintain our autonomy and modes of mobility, and make sure our bottom line is secure, even when the rest of the world suffers because of it.

Recently I was studying the Kennan doctrine, on which American foreign policy is based. In 1948, George Kennan recognized that having only 6 percent of the world’s population but 50 percent of its wealth meant that the United States could not fail to be the object of envy and resentment. To maintain this disparity would mean to forgo moral ideals and instead deal in straight power concepts. Initially I was dismayed. Then, I began to see why so much of the world resents our materialistic lifestyles. I thought to myself, “We need to redistribute the wealth, but that’s impossible.”

But, is it? The only reason that it’s impossible is because we are unwilling to walk away from rampant consumerism. Sharing property with others in service, and in so doing redistributing wealth, is possible, but only if we are resolved to secure a more peaceful world where millions no longer have to suffer want. And there’s the rub.

If we chose, as a society, to live in a way that made it difficult for others, let alone ourselves, to wage war, we could revolutionize the world. By waging peace instead of war we could remove all that divides and separates us. But, It’s going to take a lot more than protesting. And it must go much further than pacifism. Chanting “No More War!” is useless unless we do away with the causes of war.

If we can somehow build an army committed to waging peace, then we’ll be soldiers in a war that never ends. And our young men will learn lesson’s in character that cannot be learned on a battlefield.

Drug of Choice

2004-12-14T08:11:00.000-06:00

A "religion" is a highly acceptable thing. Once it is firmly established in a fixed form, people can do anything they want. They can go to church and take communion, while all the while carrying on with their stealing and cheating.

God could say, "Did I ever tell you to build churches, or to celebrate divine worship and communion so as to be saved?" If we think we have something mechanical that will save us, we are heathen. If our Christianity is a matter of forms and rituals, it will be dark around us.

What was the worst thing at the time of Jesus? I will tell you plainly: religion! People stagnated in religiosity instead of expecting something from above.

Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt

Religion is the opium of the people.

2004-12-14T08:08:00.000-06:00

Men pray to the Almighty to relieve poverty. But poverty comes not from God’s laws—it is blasphemy of the worst kind to say that. Poverty comes from man’s injustice to his fellow man. - Leo Tolstoy

We Need a Christian Left

2004-12-10T15:43:00.000-06:00

Ok, I’ll admit it. I’ve been brooding for the past month over the election results. Given the state of our economy, the casualty rates in a war of choice, the erosion of basic civil rights and a series of lies that make the Clinton administration look like a Billy Graham Crusade, it really seemed like a slam dunk for the Democrats. Yet 51% of the voters who showed up on Election Day chose to stay the course.

The Christian Right, as expected, displayed its usual lack of humility, gloating and pontificating on the sorry state of Democrats and their evil ways. Several writers on this page even publicly thanked God for the re-election of George W. Bush.

This left me in the aforementioned mood, convinced that America had lost its collective mind.

Ever since it appeared on the wall of the “War Room” in the 1992 Clinton campaign, “It’s the economy, Stupid!” has been the clarion call for the Democratic Party. Yet increasingly, millions of lower and middle class Americans have voted against their own economic self interests to support Republican candidates because the Republicans have exploited a deeper need in the electorate. The fact is that millions of Americans feel out of place in a society that values materialism and selfishness over “moral values”. Capitalism, of course, mandates this self-centered drive, but these people intrinsically want a life that has purpose and a deeper meaning, a life that eschews the searching narcissism that permeates life in 21st century America. They realize that they have material needs and that health care is a pervasive worry, as is job security and the ability to fund their children’s college educations. But on a deeper level they want more and are responding to candidates who seem to relate to them and seem to care about values and purpose.

They think they’ve found it on the right. As they gather in right-wing churches each week they are given a worldview that speaks to the longing they feel. Most of these churches are highly adept at caring for their members, meeting needs for affirmation and socialization. It matters not a whit that there seems to be a pervasive willingness to demean those outside their walls. So, the parishioners experience a level of mutual caring that is rarely found in the rest of society and a sense of community that they cannot seem to experience anywhere else.

This hunger is being exploited to the nth degree by conservative leaders.

How?

With hyperactive attempts to “preserve” families by denying gays the right to marry.

With blind support of policies that speed up the destruction of our environment and do nothing to promote respect for creation or an aversion to the practice of turning nature into a commodity.

With the position that life is sacred (only for the unborn) without a commitment to medical research, gun control and health care reform.

With the preposterous claim that they care for their fellow man while denying them a living wage and ecologically sustainable environment.

All of this leads Democrats to shake their heads in wonder and dismiss not only Republicans, but most Christians, as first class hypocrites.

Let’s do a mental exercise in what if’s.

What if John Kerry had called George W. Bush on the carpet by taking the position that a serious Christian would never turn his back on the suffering of the poor, and that the Bible’s injunction to love our neighbor required us to provide health care for all, and that the New Testament’s command to “turn the other cheek” should give us a predisposition against responding to violence with violence?

What if the Democratic Party talked about the strength that comes from love and generosity and then applied that to foreign policy and homeland security?

What if the Democratic Party espoused the virtues of a new bottom line, with American institutions judged not only by their efficiency and profits, but also by their ability to substantially improve the lives of their workforce, not only financially but in lifestyle issues as well?

What if Democrats called on schools to teach generosity, volunteerism, gratitude and the wonders of nature around us?

This Democratic Party, continuing to embrace its agenda for economic fairness and multicultural inclusiveness, could have won in 2004, and it can win in the future.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not calling for the Democratic Party to move to the right. We do not have to become like them to defeat them.

What’s needed is a Christian Left to point out the unbelievable hypocrisy of the Christian Right.

A Christian Left would no longer choose candidates who support preemptive war or appease corporate power.

A Christian Left would fight abortion at a level that provides options, not in courtrooms far removed from the lives of pregnant women.

A Christian Left would support candidates committed to providing healthcare and affordable housing to every American, regardless of their respective rung on the employment ladder, whether they deserved it or not, remembering that grace is a gift freely given and not at all deserved.

A Christian Left would take back Christianity from the pit bulls on the right who have hijacked God’s name for their own selfish purposes.

By following the Sermon on the Mount, a Christian Left could work toward the fulfillment of John Winthrop’s vision, making America truly a City on a Hill, rather than the city we’ve become.

2004-12-09T07:55:00.000-06:00

Long periods of well-being and comfort are in general dangerous to all. After such prolonged periods, weak souls become incapable of weathering any kind of trial. They are afraid of it. Yet it is a fact that difficult trials and sufferings can facilitate the growth of the soul. I know there is a widespread feeling that if we highly value suffering this is masochism. On the contrary, it is a significant bravery when we respect suffering and understand what burdens it places on our soul.

- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

If Your Neighbor Sins

2004-11-12T08:31:00.000-06:00

If your neighbor sins, then you also sin. For if you had kept yourself as the Word demands, your neighbor would have been so ashamed on seeing how you live that he would not have sinned. -- Clement of Alexandria (d. 215 AD)

2004-11-06T02:21:00.000-06:00

Europeans are thrilled with our presidential selection:

"How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?" the UK-based Daily Mirror asked in a Page One headline. Inside, several pages of coverage were headed "U.S. election disaster."

The Independent bore the front-page headline "Four more years" on a black page with grim pictures including a hooded Iraqi prisoner and an orange-clad detainee at Guantanamo Bay.

The Guardian led its features section with a black page bearing the tiny words, "Oh, God." Inside a story described how Bush's victory "catapaulted liberal Britain into collective depression."

Across Europe, many newspapers expressed dismay at the prospect of another term for Bush, a president often regarded as inflexible and unilateralist.

"Oops Â they did it again," Germany's left-leaning Tageszeitung newspaper said in a front-page English headline. The cover of the Swiss newsmagazine Facts called Bush's re-election "Europe's Nightmare." "Victory for the hothead: how far will he go?" asked another Swiss weekly, L'Hebdo.

All agreed the result reflected a sea-change in U.S. politics, a victory for neo-conservatives and the religious right.

"March of the Moral Majority" said the conservative Daily Mail, above a photo of Bush with his wife and daughters. "America's moral majority sweeps Bush back into the White House," The Daily Telegraph said.

The Times said Europe "must come to terms, not only with Mr. Bush, but with the nation that has elected him. This is a president who really can speak for America."

History Lessons for the Next Term

2004-11-05T13:49:00.000-06:00

History Lessons for the Next Term
Johann Christoph Arnold

The long awaited presidential election is over. The American people have spoken and given our president another four years to govern the country. Unlike the last election, he won the popular vote and now has a clear mandate. And although we have just been through the most polarizing campaign in recent memory, Democrats and Republicans agree on one thing—that our nation now needs to be united.

In a recent CNN poll a majority of Americans were hopeful that President Bush would do more to unite our country than to divide it. To do this, he must lead the country in truly seeking God’s will, not his human will. This will require bipartisan action, openness, and even more importantly, humility, prayer, and sacrifice. Although he won the election, there are still millions who disagree strongly with him on many points. Their views must be listened to with respect. Blindly forging ahead with policies that barely half the nation supports is no way to win the hearts of the opposition. To serve the country, our president must go beyond protecting the American people from terror. He has to address the many social ills plaguing our nation, which divide its citizens from one another and from the rest of the world.

But whether we are saddened or elated by the prospect of another four years, now is not the time for depression or gloating. How can we help our country in a world of war, terror, and fear? Jesus reminds us that we should give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God. Possibly, in these last four years, we have done neither. We have not respected our president enough and we have not cared enough for our neighbor and for the great need of the world. The time of greed and materialism has to come to an end. We have to start caring for other people, other nations, and especially our children. And whether or not we agree with him, we should pray for our president that God gives him the wisdom to guide our nation through these turbulent times.

Let us remind one another that regardless of who is president, God is ultimately in control. It is to Him that we as a nation should turn. Our president says that he is a man of faith. Perhaps he can learn important military and spiritual lessons by studying the history of the founder of his faith. Jesus himself said that the days of an eye for an eye are over. This Old Testament teaching has never worked, and only increased violence, fear and death. Instead, he told us not to resist an evil man, “but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also, and if anyone compels you to go one mile, go with him two.” Such words were not a sermon, but a way of life for Jesus; he was born in Bethlehem, under Roman occupation and under the fear of war and terror. Yet still he instructed us to love our enemies, bless those who curse us, and do good to those who hate us.

Interestingly, many people looked to Jesus as a military leader who would free the Jewish people from their oppressors. To their surprise and dismay, Jesus offered humankind a weapon that would destroy all enemies and all fear: the weapon of love and of prayer. This weapon has never failed. Today the whole world is watching our president. He has the chance of a lifetime to become a true leader, such as our nation has not had in decades. He can leave a legacy that will be hard to surpass by future presidents, if he truly acts on the faith he professes to have. This is a moment of God’s history. May our president, and all of us, be found worthy.

Jesus called on his followers to be peacemakers, and told them that they would be called the sons of God. This promise still exists for us today. These are simple but powerful words. If they worked in Christ’s time, why shouldn't they work today as we struggle to rid the world of terror? It is easy to pay our taxes, abide by the rule of law, and otherwise dutifully give to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But what about the second half of that commandment? That is harder to fulfill. In the end, only when we each become a peacemaker will we achieve the unity that politicians of all stripes are fond of giving lip service to. Then we will have given to God what belongs to God.

2004-11-04T07:09:00.000-06:00

"We kill at every step, not only in wars, riots, and executions. We kill when we close our eyes to poverty, suffering, and shame. In the same way all disrespect for life, all hard-heartedness, all indifference, all contempt is nothing else than killing. With just a little witty skepticism we can kill a good deal of the future in a young person. Life is waiting everywhere, the future is flowering everywhere, but we only see a small part of it and step on much of it with our feet."

- Hermann Hesse, German poet and novelist.

2004-11-03T07:16:00.000-06:00

For Jodi, from the Daily Dig:

The radical is that unique person who actually believes what he says. He is that person to whom the common good is the greatest personal value. He is that person who genuinely and completely believes in humankind. The radical is so completely identified with humankind that he personally shares the pain, the injustices, and the sufferings of all his fellow humans. For the radical the bell tolls unceasingly, and every man’s struggle is his fight.

Thoughts on the radicalism of the wholly committed life.

2004-11-02T11:21:00.000-06:00

"This should be the rallying cry of every church, synagogue, and mosque in America: God have mercy on us and our nation and help us out of our need! But he will do this only if we become active. Even if we vote for the wrong party, may every vote this November be seen as a prayer to God for his intervention and his will to be done. If we see our vote in this way, then we will be united as a nation as never before."

- Johann Christoph Arnold, author, social critic, and senior pastor of the Bruderhof - an international communal movement dedicated to a life of simplicity, service, sharing, and nonviolence.

2004-11-02T07:17:00.000-06:00

From the Bruderhof Peacemaker's Guide:

Once upon a time there was a boy named Opherus. He was strong, so strong that he didn't know what to do with all his strength. His father often had trouble finding work for him because, in spite of his good will, he did more harm than his work was worth. All his father’s tools were too weak for his massive arms.

By the time he was a young man, Opherus looked like a giant. Exasperated, his father said to him, “Opherus, I cannot be your master anymore. You must find a greater and stronger master to serve, one who will use your strength in a right and proper way.” Opherus left home and went to the king of the land and offered his service. The king was at war and was happy to have such a strong soldier. Opherus served his king faithfully for several years.

One day a visitor mentioned the devil to Opherus. When Opherus told the king about the conversation, the king looked terrified. He had to admit to Opherus that he was afraid of the devil. So Opherus left the king to seek this devil who was so powerful that even kings were afraid of him.

It did not take long to find the devil. Opherus found him to be a strong warrior who gladly took him into his service. And Opherus became a faithful servant of the devil for many years. He did horrible things, but he was happy because he had found a strong master.

One day, Opherus rode out with the devil. Riding down a lonely country road, they came upon a wayside cross. The devil, shuddering, made a detour around the cross. Opherus was startled and asked the devil what was wrong.

The devil told him about Jesus, who had hung on the cross, and that he was even stronger than the devil. Leaving the devil, Opherus immediately set out in search of Christ. His search was long and hard, and along the way he realized that he was burdened with many evil and wrong deeds. Nearing despair, he met a hermit and asked him how to find Christ. The hermit told him that he first had to find remorse and repentance. But Opherus told the hermit he wanted to do more than just sit and repent.

The hermit then showed him a great river which travelers had to cross. It had no bridge. The water was deep and the current was strong. He told Opherus, “If you carry poor wayfarers over this river for love’s sake, you may find what you seek.”

Opherus did exactly this for many years. He did not spare himself. He was ready night and day to help travelers. He built himself a hut by the river bank, and if somebody called for help he obliged. But all this time, he had only one longing: to find Christ.

One stormy night he heard a child’s voice, “Opherus, carry me over.” He left his house and found a child huddled on the riverbank. He picked up this child and started to cross the river. But the child became heavier and heavier, so that Opherus almost broke down under the weight. Opherus cried out, “Oh, little child, you seem to be so very heavy—it is as if I were carrying the whole earth on my shoulders.”

The child answered, “You not only carry the world and the heavens, but you carry him who bears the whole need of the world upon himself. I am Jesus Christ, your King whom you seek and whom you serve. From now on you will fear neither death nor the devil. You will walk through the suffering of this world and your name will be Christopherus, which means ‘bearer of Christ.’ Your soul will be illuminated with the love of God, and you will show mercy to men.” Then the child disappeared.

Christopherus followed Christ's commandment and went out to the people of the earth. Wherever he went he witnessed to the love and power of the child, his King.

Many of his friends did not like the change in Opherus. This turned into hatred and they banded together to kill him. But his voice and his challenge to become carriers of Christ could never be killed.

2004-11-02T07:07:00.000-06:00

Sobering.

A look at the faces of fallen U.S. soldiers in Iraq:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/iraq/casualties/facesofthefallen.htm

Also, a new study puts the number of Iraqi dead at approximately 100,000. It's not a perfect model, but even if it's off by half, that's still 50,000 men, women and children who were shocked and awed. I suspect the number is more accurate than we want to believe.

2004-11-02T07:01:00.000-06:00

From SojoMail:

"If you enroll as one of God's people, heaven is your country and God your lawgiver. And what are God's laws? You shall not kill, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. To him that strikes you on the one cheek, turn to him the other also."

- Clement of Alexandria, an early church father, in Protrepticus, 10

Vote

2004-11-02T05:31:00.000-06:00

Here it is, folks. The stability of the country is temporarily in our hands. Vote.

Never Give Up

2004-10-30T20:24:00.000-05:00

Never Give Up
William Rivers Pitt

You have to capture the mentality of the Red Sox fan. You start every season and every game almost completely sure that you will be beaten soundly. You lick your wounds and dust yourself off and maybe cry a little into your pillow. But you always, always think to yourself, "This could be it. This could be the year." You do it because you want to be there at the turning of the tide. When that day does dawn, when some October night in a time to come absorbs the victory roar of people who have watched great-grandfathers and grandfathers and fathers live entire lives and die unfulfilled, when the Boston Red Sox finally win that championship, it will have been worth every moment of pain and disappointment.

For the Boston Red Sox, and for those who followed them and never gave up on them through sixteen Presidents, Prohibition, Women's Suffrage, the Civil Rights Act, the introduction of the Big Bang theory, Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, the Depression, World War II, the Holocaust, the obliteration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the long slog of the Cold War, Korea, the fall of Saigon, the fall of Baghdad, the attacks of September 11, the assassinations of Gandhi, Evers, King, Kennedy, Kennedy and X, the long, strange trip that has been the stewardship of George W. Bush, and everything else that has marched across the pages of history for the last 86 years, there is a lesson in here somewhere.

As in baseball, so in life.

2004-10-29T07:18:00.000-05:00

A Cherokee elder sitting with his grandchildren told them, “In every life there is a terrible fight – a fight between two wolves. One is evil: he is fear, anger, envy, greed, arrogance, self-pity, resentment, and deceit. The other is good: joy, serenity, humility, confidence, generosity, truth, gentleness, and compassion.” A child asked, “Grandfather, which wolf will win?” The elder looked him in the eye. “The one you feed.”

Who is Pro-Life?

2004-10-28T07:16:00.000-05:00

From Bruderhof's Daily Dig:

As I read the triumphant headlines in the newspapers day after day--“U.S. Pounds Iraq from Air”--and saw the pictures of missiles streaking into Iraq, I could not help but hear the silent screams of all the little Iraqi children in utero who were having their lives ripped from them...Yet the silence on this matter of abortions induced by war--silence in the church, in pro-life circles, and in peace and justice efforts--is thunderous.

It is as if abortion for saving a person’s reputation is absolutely evil; abortion for saving a family’s economic life is absolutely evil; abortion for saving a person’s job is absolutely evil; abortion for saving a person from what he or she perceives to be an intolerable personal future is absolutely evil, but abortion to save oil fields for the present and future control and profit of American and British oil interests or to save the world from non-existent weapons of mass destruction or from a local dictator is morally permissible! It is as if patriotic earplugs have been discreetly employed by pro-lifers in order to not hear what they have been telling others to listen to for over thirty years--the silent screams.

I think abortion is wrong, but...

2004-10-26T09:40:00.000-05:00

Okay, I admit it. I’ve been pretty lax at posting anything here. The fact is that I’m so stressed out about the election that I’m trying to forget it as much as possible. Every day there’s news of voter manipulation, continuing chaos in Iraq, lying administrations and still, STILL, a 50% approval rating for the president.

Bush supporters are extremely misinformed, according to a survey published last week by the Program on International Policy Attitudes and Knowledge Networks.

You can read about it here.

What’s most striking (and disturbing) about the report is that it finds that Bush supporters continue to believe things about the Bush administration that have been repeatedly proven untrue.

Several theories have been presented to explain this.

Al Franken calls it Cognitive Dissonance, asserting that people want to vote for Bush so they reject the truth to better sleep at night.

Joe Conason says that after 9/11, Americans needed a hero, and George W. was that hero. As he led in the first few weeks after 9/11, the public raised him to mythical levels, and, when the truth started eroding the myth, they shored themselves up and began to live in a state of denial about the real man, lest it destroy their security in the myth.

I think they’re both right. I also think that pro-lifers want a pro-life president because they feel he will end abortion (not true), but cannot square what they’re seeing in this president with what their gut tells them they should be seeing, and so they twist their logic to accommodate his actions.

I’ll write more about the abortion equation later. I will also fill you in on a new project I’m undertaking.

2004-10-19T11:42:00.000-05:00

"America is not always right, but America is always true...You have to express yourself, roll up your shirtsleeves and remember, the America we carry in our hearts is waiting."

—Bruce Springsteen, Oct. 11, at the Vote For Change concert in Washington, D.C.

2004-10-19T08:44:00.000-05:00

Always say what you feel, and do what you think is good and right. If I knew that today would be the last time I’d see you, I would hug you tight and pray the Lord be the keeper of your soul. If I knew that this would be the last time you pass through this door, I’d embrace you, kiss you, and call you back for one more. If I knew that this would be the last time I would hear your voice, I’d take hold of each word to be able to hear it over and over again. If I knew this is the last time I see you, I’d tell you I love you, and would not just assume foolishly you know it already. -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Republican Hat Trick

2004-10-12T12:51:00.000-05:00

As a child, I never really liked “Alice in Wonderland.” Psychopathic playing cards, disappearing cats, time-challenged bunnies and mad hatters—it was all too much for me, and far too abstract. I was more of a Curious George person. A monkey in a room with a can of paint—this was something I could comprehend and relate to.

Lately, though, I have found myself revisiting Alice’s Wonderland to gain some perspective on the current state of US politics. Most of the time I feel as though I, like Alice, have fallen down a rabbit hole and am now in some alternate reality where up is down, black is white and Republicans are for the working class while Democrats are for the effete, rich, snobbish elite.

See? It makes no sense. Oh, there goes the rabbit!

For a book I was researching once, I studied the confidence games used by hucksters throughout the centuries to separate the rubes from their money. Now, I stand at the edge of a crowd gathered around the grifter as he moves the shells back and forth and I marvel at how effective he is at pulling off the con. At the same time, I am perplexed by the willingness of the crowd to continually place their money on the table.

The Republican Party has pulled off a hat trick of epic proportions, one that will be studied by political con artists for years to come. Through sleight-of-mouth, they continually persuade people to vote Republican against their own best interests.

Think about it. Conservatives elect Republican politicians to stop abortion and get, instead, a tax cut that primarily benefits the wealthiest Americans while gutting the social infrastructure and running up debt that our great-grandchildren will be paying for. They elect Republican politicians to put God back in our schools and get, instead, a roll-back in the capital gains tax. They send Republicans to Washington to fight terrorism and get, instead, free market policies that marginalize the poor in our own country and completely devastate the poor elsewhere.

When their first term ends, though, the voters in the pews and the firehouses and the factories and the farms don’t tally a scorecard. They don’t check to see whether the promises have been fulfilled. Abortion never goes away. Prayer is never returned to the schools. These are carrots offered to the masses so that they will keep sending the Republicans back.

And send them back they do, for a second, a third, a twentieth time, in the hopes that they’ll finally get it right.

With Republican control of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of the federal government, you’d think they’d have gotten it right by now.

But they never get it right, because getting it right was never part of the plan.

Democrats have always supported working families. It is because of Democrats that you have a forty-hour work week. It’s because of Democrats that your children go to school instead of the factory. It’s because of Democrats that your food is (admittedly, less every day) safe to eat and your water is safe to drink. Unions protected workers against the greed of company executives and owners. And, it’s because of Democrats that African Americans and women can vote.

Now, thanks to the hat trick mentioned earlier, blue collar workers are voting for an administration whose policies will lead to the loss of their jobs. Farmers are voting themselves off the farm. People are voting for one thing – family values, and getting another – societal devastation. It really is astonishing and frightening at the same time, and would make a wonderful sociology experiment if the consequences weren’t so dire.

But they are.

So, if you must vote Republican (for the abortion issue, for instance), can you at least hold them accountable? When they fail to live up to their promises, can’t you at least replace them with a better class of Republican? If they realize you’re watching, maybe they’ll stop taking your vote for granted and actually give you some of the policies you send them to Washington to enact.

I don’t think so. But, at least I won’t pity the voters who send them there as much. And the voters won’t have themselves solely to blame when it all falls apart.

2004-10-05T11:42:00.000-05:00

From Altercation:

GEORGE W. BUSH (with Bill O'Reilly in 2000): "Well, I -- yeah, and I'm not so sure he (Jesus) addressed the death penalty itself in the New Testament. Maybe he did."

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN; CHAPTER 8, VERSES 4-7:They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

One element of the essential C-Plus Augustus that few people dare examine is the possibility that he's as ignorant of his professed Christianity as he of so many other important things in this world. I mean, that is one of the most famous passages in Christ's public ministry. Hell (you should pardon the expression), "casting the first stone" has become a famous secular colloquialism.

I think his Christianity is simply a form he found with which to give structure to what was rapidly becoming a wastrel's life. I think it's a set of exercises -- the way some reformed drunks take to jogging or lifting weights to fill up those long, thirsty hours. I think he has some faith-based palaver that he runs through as though it were calisthenics, the same way he tosses around words like "freedom" and "liberty" when he can't think of anything else to say to explain the hash he's made of things in Iraq.

We've had a year in which John Kerry's fitness to receive communion was a topic of extended debate, but the sincerity of his opponent's religiosity was taken on, well, faith. Here's what I think: I don't think this guy knows enough Scripture -- let alone enough theology -- to throw to a cat. And I can't think of an institution less capable of examining this question than the modern mass media.

Amen, brother.

2004-09-28T13:27:00.000-05:00

I've been accused of overgeneralizing, too. For instance, saying things like "Republicans are crooks." Not all republicans are crooks, I'm told, so I shouldn't lump them together.

Two comments on that.

First, liberals are overgeneralized ALL THE TIME. Need an example? I'll give you five. Democrats want to ban the Bible. Democrats are for abortion. Liberals control the media. Liberals are snobs. Liberals want only gays to be able to adopt children (don't laugh, that's actually an accusation made against us.

Second, you can't help but "over" generalize when you're given material like this on an hourly basis:

Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff has channeled money donated to a charity he ran, Capital Athletic Foundation, which bills itself as promoting sports-related programs for kids, to "pet projects having little to do with the advertised sportsmanship programs, including political causes, a short-lived religious school and an overseas golf trip." The charity also paid "$150,225 for a golf trip to Scotland aboard a private jet." The trip included "at least six people – including Abramoff, House Administration Committee Chairman Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), lobbyist and former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed, and then-General Services Administration chief of staff David Safavian." The charity was able to collect large sums of money because Abramoff "attached himself to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) and, in so doing, became a magnet for large sums of money from business interests." An Indian tribe told federal investigators, who are now investigating Abramoff, "that they made the donations because Abramoff told them it would impress DeLay." A review of the tax and spending records of the charity reveals that "less than 1 percent of its revenue has been spent on sports-related programs for youths."

See? Republicans are crooks.

2004-09-28T11:35:00.000-05:00

I have been accused (and accused, and accused some more) of being arrogant. So, I think it’s important that everyone here realize something about me.

I have always despised writers or speakers who stubbornly put outrageous thoughts forward, even though those thoughts are easily dissected and found to be wanting. Therefore, it has been an ongoing self-corrective exercise for me to check my information two, three, even five times before putting it “out there.”

An example. This past Sunday evening, my wife and I went to a religion/politics discussion group hosted by friends of ours. There was a pretty good turnout, and everyone was cordial until the topic of abortion came up.

The facilitator of the group read a statement from the Catholic Church that said it was unsound practice to vote for a candidate solely on the basis of their stand on abortion. Then, my wife added that statistics show that abortions have been lower during Democratic presidencies, which caused several of the participants to go into seizures. One critic in particular said that the statistics were wrong and questioned my credibility. (The statistics are here if you’re interested. Note the Clinton years. Also note that this is a pro-life website).

Now, the argument was not and is not that Clinton stopped abortions. The argument was and is whether or not stronger, more effective social policies have a greater impact on reducing abortion than protests and electing presidents on the assumption that they might appoint a pro-life judge to the Supreme Court.

But, the bigger issue here is that healthy debate works for me. I realize that a lot of people get intimidated by debate (one couple stormed out the other night).

But, here’s the thing. I stayed, and I heard viewpoints that I disagree with. It’s been two days now, and I’m still pondering those things I heard and doing some research. Essentially, what I’m doing is checking my views and then re-checking them.

And that’s what you need to know. Though I may seem arrogant, I’m not. I’m confident that I have assessed my viewpoint to a degree that gives me the security to posit my view to others. When I hear new information that contradicts my views, I analyze that information, going through the whole check and re-check process, until I’m convinced that I am comfortable with my stand.

Debate is good. Discourse built this country. We do not have to agree with one another to be patriotic or good citizens. We do need, however, more people who are not intimidated by the views of others and who can measure what is told to them and check it against credible sources, forming a solid opinion of one’s own – not an opinion handed them by their parents, spouses, pastors or popes.

One more thing. If I seem passionate, it’s because I feel like I’m standing on the deck of the Titanic with the water coming up over my shoes. I’m screaming at people to get the hell off the ship, but about 50% of them are saying that we need to trust the captain, he’ll keep us afloat. In this analogy, everyone who stays on board dies. Passion saves lives.