Maikimo.net taxonomy tags

“Here’s a bold prediction: Evangelicals will present few if any obstacles for the Democrats in next year’s presidential race, but may prove problematic for the Republican nominee.”

“Lately it has come to my attention that I have been swiftboated by a gang of lowly sinners who march under the banner of the Christian Right. They have obfuscated my teachings and associated my name with the terrible sins of war profiteering, torture, and the dropping of bombs on innocents and children.”

In response to today’s news that “U.S. launches largest Iraq air assault in 3 years,” MSC writes a powerful diary containing scripture plus photos.

I try to explain to my own family why [U.S. politics of] these past five years [has] pierced my soul, stoked my rage, caused my hope to ebb more than flow; in general, why [it’s] exacerbated my melancholy. I end up writing a half-vast sermon.

Paul Krugman, writing today as seen here, makes a striking observation the American half of which I hear almost every day where I live in the southern U.S.:

A middle-class European, thinking about the poor, says to himself, “There but for the grace of God go I.” A middle-class American is all too likely to think, perhaps without admitting it to himself, “Why should I be taxed to support those people?”

“Which of these [two],” Jesus is likely to say, “do you think was a neighbor to the [poor persons] who fell into the hands of [society’s] robbers?”

The true Christian response is clear, as the next verse reveals:

The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

Any response other than active mercy is “wanting to justify [one]self,” just like the expert in the law at the start of the story. It’s missing the mark.

We’re all neighbors on this pale blue dot. Let’s start acting like it.

Bill Moyers: “Why don’t we feel the world enough to save it for our kin to come?”

Religious ignorance is a runaway problem in the U.S.

NY Times: Gary Hart: ‘If faith now drives our politics, at the very least let’s make it a faith of inclusion, genuine compassion, humility, justice and accountability.’

Sojo.net: Bill Moyers: ‘How do we nurture the healing side of religion over the killing side? How do we protect the soul of democracy against bad theology in service of an imperial state?’

Boston Globe: Jim Wallis: ‘The best public contribution of religion is precisely not to be ideologically predictable or a loyal partisan.’

Sometimes another person can, in just a few words, sweep away cobwebs that are obscuring meaning in a way I only notice when a clearer, brightly-lit meaning jumps off the screen at me.

Candace does this for me as she writes about John Dominic Crossan’s lecture yesterday on what life was like in first century Israel:

Crossan spent a great deal of time talking about justice and how our form of justice differs greatly from the form of justice touted by both Judaism and Jesus. We see justice as retribution, but Crossan argues that the Old Testament and Jesus both argue for distributive justice — a form of justice that distributes God’s mercy and love evenly to everyone.

Yes, yes! This is the justice I’m always longing for … and agitating for.

I use the word “justice” frequently, and these days — by the grace of God and some excellent theology teachers — I habitually mean distributive justice. But others could easily assume I mean retribution when I say “justice” as I haven’t been accounting for that as an unintended connotation. Hmmm, that would change my meaning rather radically.

Candace then expands wonderfully on this idea of upending our might makes right retributive understanding of justice, as Jesus does with Rome’s “first victory, then peace” slogan, replacing it with the Jewish notion of “first justice — that is, the fair and equitable distribution of God’s blessings on earth — then peace.”

Thanks very much, Candace.

I just watched the Bill Moyers NOW episode that’s been sitting on the TiVo since December 26: James Forbes, Jr., Speaking to Power.

(The Rev. Dr. James Forbes, Jr. is the senior minister at Riverside Church in New York City.)

The whole piece was profoundly moving to me. Here’s a place, a pastor, and a people whose worldview and inclusive understanding of faith provides a community in which I could immerse myself. I felt like a lonely man catching a glimpse of home. I wept.

In a snippet of a sermon (captured in episode’s transcript) I see one of the gentlest pastors I’ve ever observed speaking truth to power more forcibly than almost anyone else I’ve observed:

Dr. Forbes: When Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, one of the temptations was the devil took him on a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world and said to him, all this I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. [Matt. 4:8, NIV]

I fear that the ideology informing the present policies of the nation are coming from some people who took the devil up on it, who said, “You elite, you handful of people with your special interests, if you act quickly all the kingdoms of the world, their oil, their land, their money, their resources, I will give it to you.”

Jesus said no. But somebody helping to set policies in this nation got duped by the devil and said yes! And the policy is moving in that direction.

I think this succinctly explains the Bush Administration, its ambitions for empire, and its disregard for life and all that is holy. Someone in it said yes.

Now we outside it must assert our responsibility as followers of Jesus and say no. (I will boldly say no on Election Day.)

Interesting that Riverside is “affiliated with the American Baptist Churches and the United Church of Christ.” This tells me the word “Baptist” in a denomination name no longer conveys anything meaningful. I went to a Southern Baptist funeral a few months ago where I experienced the most fear-drenched church service I think I’ve ever been to.

In sharp contrast, this NOW episode’s depiction of Riverside Church shows a hope-drenched place of welcoming, scripturally-aware, Spirit-led people of all colors, stations, and gifts that looks to me like the coalescing Kingdom of God on earth.

Now. Where is Riverside’s spiritual kin in Memphis?

2004-01-11 update: Wow, this NOW program motivated me more than anything else has in the last six months — I went to church today, visiting Grace-St. Luke’s in Memphis because it’s listed in The Center for Progressive Christianity network directory (as I had noted back in August).

Welcoming place, that. More to learn …

I got distracted during LotR: The Return of the King as I suddenly realized its most literal interpretation has been adopted by the neoconservative hijackers of democracy in our country:

“We declare that all of them are evildoers, and we, blameless keepers of the flame, bearers of the light, are exercising our duty and divine calling in wiping them out. See? — it’s eagles that defeat the Nazgul. See? — those Arab-looking riders of the oliphaunts are evil. See? — the ‘Men of the West’ are the last hope for the world. What we have here is an allegory for America.”

I’m not a Tolkien scholar, but I don’t think literal interpretations suit his work or convey his intent. And I doubt that Peter Jackson, a New Zealander, aimed to craft a pro-America masterpiece.

As my distraction lengthened, I finally found a trace of empathy for those who think this way. If someone truly believes violence can be redemptive in this physical world, as many do, then a literal interpretation of LotR affirms present U.S. foreign policy.

Unfortunately for Christians who believe in this myth of redemptive violence^†, Jesus emphatically does not. According to him, nonretaliatory love is what redeems, violence never does. A literal interpretation of LotR — and by extension, of U.S. action in the world under the Bush administration — cannot be made to square with following Jesus.

Now where the lessons of LotR swell into truth is on the spiritual level. We are to resist evil. We are to be warriors against darkness just as imaged in the film. But against spirits and dominions and powers only, not against people. According to Jesus, we are to care for everyone the Father cares for, even the “ungrateful and the selfish and wicked” that the Father is “kind and charitable and good” to (Luke 6:27-36, AMP).

None of us are wholly good and the “enemy” is not wholly evil. The potential for — and reality of — evildoing lies in all of us. We must recognize this in ourselves. We must see the deception and greed and injustice and retribution that inhabit us in our prosecution of this war on terror. And we must repent. Our leaders must repent. To do otherwise is to bring down judgment on ourselves.

The truth is this: God has never appointed us policemen of this world. What he appoints us to be [is] its stewards and its servants. If Jesus is right, our present tack of meeting violence with violence will never work. If Jesus is right, meeting people’s needs from out of our abundance will.

I know several Bush supporters who are determined to see George as Aragorn, rightly enthroned as king who beats back the hordes of darkness. I think this is purest fantasy. At best our president is Boromir — not a king but a steward, one who despite possible good qualities is unable to resist the Ring of Power. And it is driving / has driven him mad. At worst I see George & Co. as Ringwraiths, wreaking division and death and destruction upon the world, once men but now made hollow where their souls once were, long ago sold for the Power of a Ring.

(I use “we,” “us,” and “our” as shorthand for my U.S.-oriented point of view. I use “Bush” as shorthand for the multiple [Bush-]like-minded persons and powers inhabiting our government.)

[Denethor was the last ruling Steward of Gondor, father of Boromir and Faramir. He was subject to depression and denial, maladies I recognize in myself and the Christian Right, more or less respectively. I’m pretty sure we both can be healed. Eventually.]

2003-12-31 update:
Charles Sebold, someone I’ve enjoyed virtually knowing for some years now, observes in his review of the first LotR movie something that (as long as I’m trying to be generous) sets me thinking George may be more analogous to Tolkien’s — not the movie’s — Saruman:

Saruman [in the movie] is so one-dimensional that it will make the purist cry. Tolkien’s Saruman is the victim of good intentions, overestimation of his own abilities, and a subtle corruption of power that extends over time — he is never really the ally of Sauron.

Regardless of intent and nature of alliance, I note that the devastation wrought is the same.

^†Interesting related reading:

• Martin Hattersley: The Myth of Redemptive Violence

• Walter Wink: Myth of Redemptive Violence

• Walter Wink: Babylon Revisited: How Violent Myths Resurface Today

• Gutless Pacifist: Redemptive Violence for a Just War

• First Congregational Church (UCC), Closter, NJ:
  The Civic Religion of Redemptive Violence
  The Ring of Tolkien: The Magnification of Power by Technology

• National Catholic Reporter: Candy ain’t dandy in this classroom

Seymour Hersh writes a new article in The New Yorker, Moving Targets, that begins —

The Bush Administration has authorized a major escalation of the Special Forces covert war in Iraq. … [The Special Forces group’s] highest priority is the neutralization of the Baathist insurgents, by capture or assassination.

This radical Pentagon news once again juxtaposes contrasting concepts on the teleprompter in my head …

An American who has advised the civilian authority in Baghdad said, “The only way we can win is to go unconventional. We’re going to have to play their game. Guerrilla versus guerrilla. Terrorism versus terrorism. We’ve got to scare the Iraqis into submission.”

Can logic — or sanity — encompass both these beliefs? (I think not.)

One of the key planners of [this] Special Forces offensive is Lieutenant General William (Jerry) Boykin … In October, the Los Angeles Times reported that Boykin, while giving Sunday-morning talks in uniform to church groups, had repeatedly equated the Muslim world with Satan. Last June … he told a congregation in Oregon that “Satan wants to destroy this nation, he wants to destroy us as a nation, and he wants to destroy us as a Christian army.” … The Muslim world hates America, he said, “because we are a nation of believers.”

(emphasis mine)

Boykin says we are a nation of believers. But believers in whom?

“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”
—Jesus (Luke 6:46, NIV)

[story link via Meteor Blades at Daily Kos]

Thom Hartmann discusses well the differences between conservative vs. liberal perceptions of morality:

[Conservatives] define [morality] first and foremost in terms of personal behavior: What goes on in people’s bedrooms, what drugs others may be taking in their own living rooms, whether a woman should be allowed to prevent or terminate a pregnancy. In their fervor for these issues, many conservatives think they are the only ones concerned about morality in an otherwise decadent society. …

While personal morality is key in the conservative world-view, public morality is the overarching concern of liberals. Some are so passionate about this morality that they’re led to acts of civil disobedience.

Then Thom mentions a most compelling reason for conservative Christians to rethink/expand their understanding of morality, IMO: Jesus, according to the Gospels, indisputably emphasizes public morality:

Perhaps best summarized in Jesus’ description in Matthew 25 of who will (and who won’t) get into heaven, liberal morality asks: “Are the hungry fed? Does everybody have the housing, clothing, and health-care they need? Are those in prison treated humanely? Are we caring for the “strangers” — the less fortunate or less competent among us — in the same way we’d want to be cared for if we fell on hard times?”

Many liberals would say that what people do in [their] private lives is their own business, and that if we hold to the ancient standard that only those among us without sin may cast stones at those with personal failings, we’ll have a more humane and decent society.

It’s not that personal morality isn’t important. It is. But it’s not a useful behavioral emphasis because we’ve all fallen short. Personal morality is a fruit of the Spirit, an ongoing outcome of a changed life; it’s nothing we can effort into place. (As Mr. Limbaugh and Mr. Bennett are learning.)

Public morality, OTOH, is a behavioral choice that’s crucial toward effecting a just and sustainable society. That is, if you’re theologically inclined, toward effecting the real Kingdom of God. Hence, it’s the kind of morality Jesus emphasizes we’ll be judged for.

What I observe here in the U.S., to my dismay and revulsion, is a thoroughgoing lack of public morality among loud conservatives in general and the Bush Administration in particular. There’s no excuse, and there’s no hiding: more and more, by their fruit we recognize them. The time of playing along that black is white, up is down, is drawing to a close.

See also related Farai Chideya encouragement, Avoiding the Rush to Gloat.

2003-10-28 update: Bob Herbert in a New York Times op-ed illustrates present intra-U.S. consequences of this Administration’s lack of public morality quite clearly IMO (also archived at Truthout).

And absolutely square-on to the point: Bill Moyers interviews Union Theological Seminary’s Joseph Hough —

There is a definite intentional move on the part of political leadership in this country … [that] is not at all compatible with the prophetic tradition in Islam, Christianity, or Judaism. And that is the obligation on the part of people who believe in God to care for the least and the poorest. That central teaching, that sacred code, I think, is very well summed up in Proverbs [14:31] where the writer of Proverbs says, “Those who oppress the needy insult their maker.”

Kynn reminds me that I am indeed a progressive Christian, though I haven’t consciously spent much time identifying as one of that label.

Rachel reminds me of these wonderful lines spoken by the young priest in his Easter homily near the end of the movie Chocolat:

I don’t want to talk about His divinity, I’d rather talk about His humanity. I mean, you know, how He lived His life here on earth. His kindness, His tolerance …

Listen — here’s what I think: we can’t go around measuring our goodness by what we don’t do, by what we deny ourselves, what we resist, and who we exclude. I think we’ve got to measure goodness by what we embrace, what we create, and who we include.

Yes. To believers, Jesus’ divinity and humanity are inseparable, but we’ve gotten out of balance in our understanding; in living out our humanity in his service we’ve turned his message upside down. Let’s pay attention to his human example. Let’s recalibrate ourselves.

Many approve of the U.S. Bush administration on faith, keying off its skill in using religious words and phrases. This is glowingly illustrated in this Washington Post story.

But use of religious vocabulary is not a useful measure of anyone's spiritual condition. The Pharisees of Jesus' day were masters of religious vocabulary. And of them Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven."

Instead, we're given a truer measure:
"By their fruit you will recognize them" (Matt 7:16, context).

Close your eyes; look deeply into the spiritual condition of the U.S. administration. What do you see? By what fruit may we recognize them?

Is there fruit of Spirit-led lives as enumerated by Paul -- "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control"? (Gal 5:22, context)

Or is there a different kind of fruit altogether? I see the U.S. administration saying "Lord, Lord" yet --

• stirring up hatred of enemy
• provoking fear among its citizens
• pressing hard for war against global counsel
• showing no mercy in its intent to annihilate Iraqi civilians
• showing no lasting commitment to rebuild lands and peoples it has destroyed
• intending to dominate and rule captured lands and oil fields
• obsessing over secrecy
• intending to silence voices of opposition
• willing to plunder nature for monetary gain
• willing to bankrupt the future to profit in the present

By this fruit I recognize them.

Be careful that you are not led astray.

From yesterday’s Boston Globe article Religious Leaders Try to Raise Voice for Peace:

At the same time [as President Bush makes a case for war in his SOTU address], at Boston’s storied Trinity Church, leaders of many of the state’s religious traditions … to make their own case, for peace.

The simultaneous events highlight an increasing tension between an openly religious president and the leaders of many of the nation’s religions.

I believe this tension is well-founded. I look at the U.S. administration and see a whitewashed sepulchre, as Jesus called the openly religious scribes and Pharisees: “You are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.”

Be careful that you are not led astray.

“I don’t want to second-guess [the president’s] discernment, but I think he’s clearly misguided on this issue,” said Bishop M. Thomas Shaw, leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, who is organizing tonight’s religious event, at which Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, and Sikhs plan to pray together against war …

God is father of all of us. I imagine this [multi-faith prayer] event makes him glad.

“I’m not sure that, at this stage of preparations for war, there have ever been so many voices so united and so concerned,” said the Rev. Nancy S. Taylor, the president of the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ. … “We’re letting our national leaders know we are not in agreement with a preemptive rush to war, and we are standing in solidarity with each other and with our neighbors in a faraway country called Iraq.”

Indeed. This is what we as peoples of faith are called to do.

I find Jesus’ words in Luke 21:8 speak directly to the present situation: “Be careful that you are not led astray; for many will come in My name… Do not go out after them.”

Update: Follow-up article on this Trinity Church meeting appeared today, Diversity in Faith, Unity in Peace:

“How can we not be against this war?” [Bishop] Shaw asked last night. “This unity, this interconnectedness that is the heart of our faith cuts across all of our national identities and is more powerful than all the leaders in the world or the armies or the weapons in the world.”