word tracings

GOP extinction by 2030

2009-09-07T11:10:00.004-04:00

Recently an article written by Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine asserted that the Republican party needed to be more inclusive, especially of moderates. It evoked some responses by readers calling for more blood-letting among the Republicans. Because she was bemoaning the loss of Arlen Specter (Republican senator turned Democrat) and calling for the inclusion of more moderate Republicans in the party, Snowe was berated by some who commented about that article.

The Republican philosophy expressed by a couple of those who commented was no surprise to me. They want to purge the party further of moderates like Snowe. The trouble with those seeking party unity, by exclusion, is that they seem to have an inside track on the definition of "purity". Like religious fundamentalists, everyone else is wrong, unless they agree with "me". Sooner or later this game of musical chairs (i.e., excluding the outliers) will inevitably end up with only one player.

I can see an end to the Republican party in eight to twelve years--surely by 2030, if this philosophy of exclusion is continued. (Parties do die off, have done so numerous times in history). The current appeal to "puritanism" (e.g., in the past exemplified by the Pharisees and the Puritans) and its process of distillation, will lead to an even more extremist political position. The current views of such as Beck, Bachman, Limbaugh, Palin and Steele (who echoes whatever is the current theme) is beckoning the Republicans to jump, lemming-like, off the cliff.

The solid Republican leaders of the past, like Reagan, Dole, Dirksen and Eisenhower, would not tolerate the current tsunami of ridicule, distortions and veiled-prejudice being bandied about by the current crop of GOP political "leaders". No Republican today is showing political "statesmanship. It seems they would rather be re-elected than to stand up for decency, reasonableness and fairness.

There has usually been an historical balance in the conservative voice. A balance with solid fiscal policy, domestic security, military strength and gentlemanly respect for political opponents (both domestic and foreign). There is a present day need for that same balance. One person I am aware of seems to be speaking that that message. Although I switch my TV channel when he goes into one of his rants, I admire Joe Scarborough. He has avoided, for the most part, the hyperbolic, poisonous language of the right-wing birthers, end-or-lifers, the school indoctrinators. He has not put forth a "chicken little" mentality about America.

If the sensible conservatives emerge in a new party, after the GOP demise, Scarborough could be one of the leaders-- If he were able to shed the fanatical extremists (certainly not all those on the right), or at least control their craziness, And if he were to learn to listen better.

Right now there is not a single Republican I would vote for. None of those w ho are prominent on the national scene (of which I am aware) show statesmanlike principles needed by our country.

Can you put forth the name of a Republican who follows the highest leadership principles?.

Do we miss something by watching just Fox or MSNBC?

2009-08-15T11:06:00.006-04:00

A recent email discussion among a group of my fraternity brothers (we were in college together over forty years ago) has centered on the issue of whether Fox News or MSNBC news presents a truthful image of what is going on in the world. I wrote the following:

Have you missed something important (by not watching Bill O’Reilly, Keith Obermann, Sean Hannity, Chris Matthews, Glenn Beck, or Rachel Maddow)? I don't know.

I believe that truth is relative to each individual and that we perceive "truth" through filtered eyes. We are prejudiced in favor of those values we hold and which have been incorporated in us throughout our life.

Theologically, I have been taught that arriving at the truth meant trusting an authoritative source (Scripture and Church tradition) and tempering them with Reason and Experience. Politically we do something similar: grounded in authoritative documents and historical figures and events, we use our Reason to arrive at values which are ratified by our Experience.

But, we all utilize those factors based on our own unique understanding of what is true. Are people basically good or bad? Can we trust a particular political leader or news commentator? Is "Big government" and/or "Big Business" good or bad? Is life black or white, good or evil (disjunctive) or is it a blending, both black and white, good and evil (conjunctive)? How we respond to issues like those, form the bases for our individual value systems.

And we seek out, as conduits for our link with the outside world, those sources who share to some degree our basic values. So, they reinforce our prejudices, our relative understandings of what is going in the body politic.

My prejudice is that all entities operate in their own best interest. And those which have tremendous power (both government and business) pursue goals which insure their own self-interests. At the moment, the forces aligned with Obama are battling with the health insurance industry. In the middle are the members of Congress, the lobbyists and all of us (the people). Each side, I am certain, believes in the "rightness" of its efforts. Each wants to preserve its own existence. The basic issue is, which "side" has a set of values and goals which will produce the most good for most of the people?

And we all line up on one side or the other based on our own prejudiced opinions. Or, we stand in the middle of all the stormy propaganda, not sure what is best. Or, we simply do our best to ignore the whole mess.

I choose to listen to Rachel Maddow and take her for my most trusted commentator. She is very intelligent, researches her stories very well, has authoritative persons as interviewees, and speaks the truth to power. But those evaluations are based on my own prejudice. Others might say the same for Bill O'Reilly. Of course, we do not give complete trust to them, but they are trusted to tell us the "truth".

I could give you a long list of reasons why I think our lives will be negatively impacted if the health insurance companies win. Others could balance my thoughts with their own.

If you or I limit our news input primarily to Fox or MSNBC we may or may not have missed something by not listening to the other commentators I named. But, if an informed citizenry is important, some means of being connected to the body politic and it's issues is important. Unfortunately, in our polarized political environment, polemics dominate all news, and that means we all must listen and evaluate with sharp discernment--knowing that, at best, what we hear is only partial truth.

I do believe I am right. But then, John Wesley said, "No man will hold an opinion which he thinks is wrong."

Conrad

Reconciliation, the Perilous Road to Health Care

2009-08-08T17:12:00.006-04:00

Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Friday used the word Republicans do not want to hear: reconciliation. That word, as used in the US Congress, is not an attempt to build harmony or friendship, bur is a demand that the minority party submit unwillingly to the majority.."It is certainly on the table", said Schumer*.

Reconciliation is a legislative procedure whereby passage of the pending health care legislation could require, not 60 normal votes, but instead only 51. It would also cut off the possibility of any filibuster of the matter before Congress.

While the hope has existed for a compromise plan in various Senate committees, Democratic leaders have been careful not to talk about reconciliation. But when the Senate recessed this past week, Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont), Chairman of Senate Finance, had not been able to forge a consensus from his committee members. That deadlock brought forth some talk about the use of the reconciliation procedure.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, (D-Nev) said Friday that “We don’t want to use reconciliation unless we have to. I hope we don’t have to.” The White House insisted on Thursday (8-6) that it was open to the use of a parliamentary procedure that would prevent health care reform from being filibustered by the GOP.

The idea of imposing reconciliation is not comforting to Senator Mike Enzi a Wyoming Republican. He said, “I’m afraid that if reconciliation winds up in the [health care] budget bill, it’ll be like a declaration of war.”

Some Senators have expressed the idea that a "Reconciliation Bill" could be brought to the floor of the Senate if it were reported out of committe in that form. That is correct, but what happens at that point is debatable. When the bill reaches the floor, any Senator may offer amendments or rise to a point of order and challenge whether any part of the bill is "extraneous". Any challenged "extraneous" part would be striken from the bill if less than 60 Senators (assuming 100 preent) voted to support it. This activity is called the "Byrd Bath" (see below).

The remaining bill can then get only twenty hours of debate, and amendments are limited. An up-and-down vote then follows with fifty-one (51) votes carrying the bill. There are some restrictions imposed on budget-related portions of the bill.

What is the Byrd Bath?

In 1985-1986 a procedure called the "Byrd Rule" was adopted by the Senate. The rule provided six definitions that judge a provision of a reconciliation bill to be "extraneous". They are

if it does not produce a change in outlays or revenues;
if it produces an outlay increase or revenue decrease when the instructed committee is not in compliance with its instructions;
if it is outside the jurisdiction of the committee that submitted the title or provision for inclusion in the reconciliation measure;
if it produces a change in outlays or revenues which is merely incidental to the non-budgetary components of the provision;
if it would increase the deficit for a fiscal year beyond those covered by the reconciliation measure, though the provisions in question may receive an exception if they in total in a Title of the measure net to a reduction in the deficit; and
if it recommends changes in Social Security.

Again, any provision of the bill determined to be extraneous will be stripped from the bill, unless 60 Senators vote to waive the objection. The process of "scrubbing" through the original bill in search of extraneous provisions is referred to as the Byrd Bath.**

Because of the possibility that numerous items, based on the above provisions, could be striken from a reonciliation bill Senator Kent Conrad, (D-ND) has said the end result with be a Health Care bill that looked like Swiss cheese, because there could be so many holes in it.*** The Republicans could be so angry over the attempt to force through a sweeping Health Care plan that they would probably nit-pick the legislation to death.

“Most of the big public policy stuff, which is really important, would not survive the Byrd Rule,” said Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the senior Republican on the Budget Committee and someone who could be counted on to use his expertise to make reconciliation as difficult as possible for Democrats.

But there is a potential way around the Byrd Rule:****

Democrats are examining an unusual "two-track" approach. First, some of the most controversial parts of the health plan--taxes, fees, savings from existing federal programs---would be packaged in one "extraneous-free" reconciliation bill and passed by a simple majority. Second all the policy changes and program expansions would be treated like an ordinary bill. As such it would be subject to filibuster and amendment. But these parts of the bill would be popular enough to get the 60 votes, overcome a filibuster, and,what-do-you know: a health care bill.

Of course, there are still bumps in the road. If some senators are angry that the first bill squeaks through, they might not want to help to pass the second one, whether they like it or not

“No matter what happens, we’re going to enact health care reform by the end of the year,” Sentor said Schumer.

Major questions still remain unanswered: Will there be some form of public option in that bill?” Will the final form of the bill have some means of limiting the costs of the health insurance policies? Will people be protected from having their policies terminated if they become sick with a "high-treatment-cost" illness?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/03/schumer-reconciliation-is_n_250203.html
** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconciliation_(U.S._Congress)
*** http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8465604 c. 8-07-9
**** http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/us/politics/02hulse.html copied 8-08-09.

Whose Side Are You On, Senator Nelson?

2009-08-07T10:04:00.004-04:00

A very interesting piece I first saw on Rachel Maddow's show, August 5, puts the question to Senator Ben Nelson, (D-Nebr): Are you on the side of the small business owners of Nebraska, or, are you on the side of the Health Insurance Companies?

An ad is running in Nebraska, "Who's side are you on?" addressed to Senator Nelson. It features a restaurant owner in Ralston, Nebraska who just received notice that his insurance premiums were going up 42% the coming year. Here is a realistic look at the plight of the small business owner. Check out the ad .

So, Senator Nelson says that if this type of publicity about Health Care reform continues, the whole project may be dead by the end of August. In essence he is saying: Attack my position and I might just kill the entire thing.

President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers* last Saturday (August 1) stressed these points:

Small businesses (those with less than 100 employees) employ around 30% of all uninsured Americans.
If small businesses are able to insure their employees, they pay 18% higher premiums than large companies pay.
Right now (the status quo) health care is priced out of reach for most small businesses.

That’s why President Obama is arguing for a public option in the current debate. Unless some means of making insurance companies compete is included in the proposed plans, the insurance companies will have free reign to raise premiums and deductibles and refuse service. Those practices are absolutely necessary in order for them to increase profits and satisfy shareholders---and pay legislators to do their bidding.

Your comments below are appreciated.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090725/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_health_care copied on 8-7-09..

Moore, Obermann, Stewart: Health Care

2009-08-05T15:48:00.004-04:00

While corporate lobbying firms instruct people how to disrupt town hall meetings across America, the fate of a fair and effective Health Care system continues to be debated outside the range of angry voices.

I hope you have seen Bill Moyers Journal episode featuring a former Cigna executive, Weldon Potter. If you have not seen it, go to the next article down and click on the link to Moyers' Journal. It is the best information available on the methods used by health insurance companies to protect their profit margins at the expense of human life and health.

Below are three clips about health care. A couple of years ago, Michael Moore appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show and they discussed the movie Sicko and American healthcare. So here's the first clip: Michael & Oprah (This video requires Quicktime 7, which you can download free here.)

The second clip is last Monday’s “Special Comment “ by Keith Obermann, Countdown, MSNBC, in which he takes on a number of congressmen who take beaucoup dollars from health care companies. Those companies, in turn make decisions that greatly harm the congressmen’s true constituents. That clip can be seen at: Legislators for Sale

The last video is from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart looking at various cable commentators discussing the importance of Obama passing a health care plan.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~THANKS to ONE GOOD MOVE (www.onegoodmove.org ) for these clips.

The movie Sicko is available at Netflix, probably at Blockbusters and other DVD rental stores. You may remember the Health Care Insurance companies spent a lot of money bashing Michael Moore and the movie.

The Health Care debate is the most important issue before the Congress since the discussion over the Iraq war. I have been on Medicare for the past three years and am very pleased with it. I would be okay with a single-payer plan for all, like Medicare.

If you have an insurance plan, and you develop some costly illness, you may find yourself in economic quicksand. This is not true for everyone; but it is true for many. And the cost of your insurance. What was it five years ago? What will it be five years from now? I can remember when I was working that we would get a pay raise, and at the same time our insurance would go up more than the raise. Has that happened to you? We really cannot keep on with the way things are. More and more people are losing their insurance (can’t afford it; or, their employer cannot afford it), or finding their deductions going up and up. Talk with folks around you and see what their experience with health care insurance is.

The level of distortions and untruths being spread about the various proposals in Washington is appalling. Even more distressing are the number people who believe that “killing grandparents” is in the works, or that our current system is the best in the world, or that the government would decide if you got a certain kind of treatment.

Scary? Are you afraid? That’s what the fear-mongers want. Their propaganda is designed to build a level of paranoia and fear. If they can keep us from making any changes in our health care system, they win. You lose. They know that. Do you?

Bill Moyers on Health Care

2009-08-04T11:35:00.003-04:00

Health Care reform is currently the most crucial item before our nation for debate. Unfortunately, much of the information we get is produced and published by Health Insurance interests.

The clip below will take you to Bill Moyers' Journal and give you the opportunity to hear the other side. If you will take the time to watch a couple of the videos you will learn some sides of this debate you may not have yet heard.

Click on Moyers' Journal

[at the site, click on "archive" thenthe "Wendall Potter" video, and, the small white arrow on the bottom band of the video.

IN YOUR DEFENSE: Primary Loyalty to . . . God, Country?

2009-07-30T09:07:00.007-04:00

A young man had just gotten a job in a bookstore and was very excited about having found work. Early in the day he listened carefully as his supervisor explained his duties:

opening the boxes of new books in the back room,
placing those books on the appropriate shelves,
straightening up the shelves,
helping customers find books for which they were looking
helping customers to check out if the lines became long, and
at the end of his day, vacuuming the floor and taking out the trash.

He loved his job very much because there was plenty of extra time to visit with people. And, he found that if he stayed close to the Religious Books section, he could easily find customers who wanted to talk about God and Jesus.. What could be more important than that? He seemed to lose himself in his conversations.

At the end of the day, his supervisor walked him through the store and discovered the boxes of new books were unopened, the books already on the shelves were out of order, several customers had complained that they could get no one to help them find a book, the floor was not vacuumed and the trash was overflowing.

Pointing out these undone tasks to the new employee, the supervisor was surprised to hear, “But I was talking about God and Jesus. What could be more important than that?”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Christian Embassy, a ministry to government and military elites, is a is a correlative venture of The Family.* It produced a short video on faith and diplomacy following September 11, 2001. The video seems to endorse deliberate negligence of duty. It featured:

Dan Cooper , Undersecretary of defense, “evangelizing activities are more important than doing the job.
General Jack Catton (testifying in uniform, an apparent violation of military regulations) “My first priority is my faith; God before country.”
Representative John Carter, (R-Texas) Commenting on governmental trips to Africa and Eastern Europe, “We were congressmen goin’ over there to represent the Lord. We are here to tell you about Jesus . . . and that’s it.”

The prayer cells (Organized by The Family) in the State Department are encouraged by Christian Embassy, not to explain US positions, but to leave visiting diplomats with a personal relationship with the King of Kings, Jesus Christ. Commandant of West Point, Brigadier General Bob Caslen has said, “We are the aroma of Jesus”.

UPDATE: You may see this video at the website: Jews on First . Scroll down a couple of pages to "Christian Embassy Promotional Video" and click. I am not familiar with this web site but it appears to have quite a bit of material opposing the Christian Right's military and governmental efforts.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

As worthy a task as evangelism may be, within the Christian community, I find it to be a corrupting factor for a military person to advocate allegiance to God over country. The defense of our nation must be the top priority of any military person.

I also find it threatening to the security of our nation, that a group of high-ranking military officers might take it upon themselves to believe that God might want them to do something contrary to the best interest of our government. If you think that is crazy talk, just listen to the sacrosanct words of the spokespersons for the Christian Right today (Obama’s presidency is illegitimate, the government wants to kill old people, murder of doctor’s performing abortions is okay, etc.)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

If the work behavior of the young man in the bookstore continued in the way he started, he would justifiably be fired. The same discipline needs to be applied to the zealots who refuse to do their job in favor of evangelizing.

Your comments (click below) are appreciated.
____________________

*Christian Embassy was founded by Bill Bright (Campus Crusade for Christ) and Congressman John Conlan (R-Ariz, 1973-1977). The material in this and the next paragraph (above) is taken from Jeff Sharlet’s THE FAMILY: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, (New York: Harper Perennial, 2008) p. 353f.

Who do you think is a Hatemonger?

2009-07-05T20:08:00.003-04:00

I have a friend who is very conservative. He thinks Michael Moore speaks hate talk. And another friend is a liberal and thinks Ann Coulter is a person who hates. The interesting thing is that the conservative does not think Coulter is hateful and the liberal does not think Moore is full of hate.

So, it seems to me that we all may identify different people as angry, hostile folks who wish hurt and ridicule upon others; but depending upon our own political perception we may have one list if we are right wing and another list if we are left wing.

Please help sort this out by saying:

if you are liberal; and who all do you think speaks hateful words on our national scene; and,
if you are conservative and who all do you point to as a hater.

You may have many "haters" on your list; please suggest them all.

At some point I hope to write a piece on the hatemongers and the role they play on our political scene.

Use the "comment" section below to record your response, or send an email to me at:
conradarch@yahoo.com

S/R Rpt 05 Let Marriage belong to the Church; Civil Unions to the State

2009-06-30T11:58:00.005-04:00

This article was first published elsewhere in March 2009).

My opinion is that those who oppose same-sex marriage do so on religious grounds, not because of legal civil unions. I have not heard the opponents of gay marriage say they want to deny gays/lesbians the rights to visit a "friend" in the hospital, share resources, have legal status shared, and to have all the rights of survivorship.. What they don't want, more than anything else is to have their church perform a 'marriage' ceremony.

I am a retired minister in the United Methodist Church. My church, like most other main-liners says it is against the church law for a clergyperson to perform or bless a homosexual union.

But, there are chuches who will perform a same-sex marriage ceremony. I believe the Metro Church, the United Church of Christ and others will do so.

If we let "marriage" be done at the discretion of a church most church members would be okay with whatever their church dictated. [I know many members would not, but stay with me for a minute.] Surely no church member would want to impose their religous understanding upon another church.

Whenever I would conduct a wedding ceremony, I would sign the wedding license (issued by the state) and the couple would have to take it to the courthouse and register their married status. So far as I know it has always been that way (forever and ever and ever, Amen. :=} ).

So, let us require that "marriages" must be done by a clergyman (or justice of peace, judge, ship captain, etc.) and let the legal processing of that union be done by the state.

Marriage in the church (religious authority); civil union by the state (civil authority).

What right would any religious body have to intefere in the state's role?

from Newsweek, "Perspectives" (March 16, 2009) p. 25:

"If you 're in the marriage business, do it equally. If your're not going to do it equally, then get out of the marriage business." --Michael Maroko, a California lawyer for same-sex couples, on a judges proposal to issue licenses for civil unions to all couples, and leaving "marriage" to the faith community.

Sounds like a plan.

Each individual church (or denomination) could decide whether it would allow same-sex marriages. The state would process the legal contract. Any pastor (or specified leader) or any other authorized official could perform the marriage, according to the dictates of their own conscience. The state's role would only be to record the union in their records, thus authenticating the legal union.

The state would not interfere with religious matters, and the churches would not interfere with secular, state matters.
- - - - - - - - - -

SR Snips

Hate Crimes United States Attorney-General Eric Holder urged the Congress to step up the passage of federal hate crime legislation. "The rising tide of criminal activity fueled by bias and bigotry must be addressed."
Gay (Human) Rights President Obama assured gay rights leaders Monday (6-29) that he continues to work for repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act and the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy which governs participation in the military.
Defense SpendingJune 25 (Bloomberg) -- The Senate Armed Services Committee today (6-25) added money to the Pentagon’s fiscal 2010 budget to buy seven more Lockheed Martin Corp.The Pentagon and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates opposes the spending proposal and the Obama administration threatened to veto any legislation that contains them. [Smells like pork: defense establishment: "we don't need them,nor want them". Congress: "We need to keep the jobs in our home states."

"Uncomfortable" with Wall-to-Wall Michael Jackson

2009-06-28T17:27:00.004-04:00

David Schuster, MSNBC anchor person, tweeted Friday or Saturday that he felt the MSNBC coverage of Michael Jackson's death was about in the correct ratio to iits importance. I tweeted him back that I was gtad I had some good programs recorded on my DVR so I could watch something besides the expanded eulogy of the fallen musical icon. One hour of details about the death was a little more than I needed.

This morning (Sunday) on "Face the Nation", Bob Schieffer drew the distinction between a national hero and a pop star icon. He said that we have monuments in Washington honoring those persons we admire: Lincoln, Washington and Jefferson, along with the WWII monument. A nation is defined by the heroes it honors.

Schieffer went on to say that he once took his daughters to a MJ concert and concluded that the star did have talent and it was a fine concert.

Then Scheiffer nailed the way I have felt about Jackson, his life and his death.

His tortured existence, his devotion to excess, to celebrity, and, for lack of a better word, his "weirdness" seemed to me to be an example of how not to live one's life.

I have seen very little of the cable coverage of all this uproar. I imagine the cable neetworks can make a lot of money with little production costs just by by waiting for a coroner, an ems person, a doctor, friends or admireres to step up to the camera and tell us what they have done or how they feel; and, to speculate on the use of drugs, was it homicide, who will get "his" kids.

Talk about formula, cheapo coverage. It looks just like the fixation the networks had over Anna Nicole Smith's death. This excessive coverage has a somewhat "ghoulish" quality to it. Both Smith and Jackson had some serious perversions they dealt with; and we gather, like vultures, waiting to peck off a hunk of flesh and fly away.

The death of Michael Jackson brings to an end the sad, tragic and gifted life of a pop icon. But he was not an American hero. Like Bob Scheiffer, watching some of the wall-to-wall coverage left me "feeling uncomfortable with the whole thing."

S/R Report 04: Hatred Is Learned

2009-06-25T18:21:00.002-04:00

It was 1949, fifteen years before the Civil Rights Act would be passed, fourteen years before Martin Luther King, Jr, shared his dream in Washington. It was a time in America of unrest. Joe McCarthy had the nation looking for Communists behind every front door. "White Only" signs were enforced with threats of axe handles. America was in a state of social flux with thousands of troops having returned from the WWII war theater; and, industry was converting from a powerful war machine back to the manufacture of plow-shares.

Onto this scene, on Broadway, ."South Pacific" opened for a run that would not stop until January 16, 1954. For 1,925 performances the audience thrilled to "Younger than Springtime" and "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair". Rodgers & Hammerstein had done it again.

But the love story took place on a island in the South Pacific not far from where Japanese forces were stataioned. A Navy ensign, Lt. Cable was stationed there and fell in love with Liat, the daughter of a Tonkinese trader, Bloody Mary. Cable was torn by his racial prejudice and his feelings for Liat. He resolved his dilemma by deciding racism is "not born in you; it happens after you're born". Then he sings these lyrics:

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!

Rodgers & Hammerstein, South Pacific, 1949

These words probably would not attract that much controversy today but sixty years ago they raised legislative challenges and were even suspected of being Communistic.

While [South Pacific was] on a tour of the Southern United States, lawmakers in Georgia introduced a bill outlawing entertainment containing "an underlying philosophy inspired by Moscow." One legislator said that "a song justifying interracial marriage was implicitly a threat to the American way of life". Rodgers and Hammerstein were pressed to remove this song from the play, but stubbornly refused--even if it meant shutting down the production.*

Of course, this musical and the words of that song only played a small part in the change of America's feelings about relations between the races. But they did play a part. And many other expressions stood up to the hate-filled prejudice until finally the political will of the American people became law in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

But, hatred still speaks out of fear, anger or injury. Ultimately hatred punishes the one who expresses it. It has been said that hatred is a boomerang which is sure to hit you harder than the one at whom you throw it. (anonymous) Touching the roots of that hatred with sensitive care can bring a measure of healing to the hating person's hurt.

Hatred will continue to grow or diminish depending on whether you and I express words of love and truth, wherever and whenever we hear lies directed at gender, sexual orientation, age, race, religion, disability or political affiliation.

SR Snips:

Hate--Hall Turner, a former talk-show host, was arrested at his New Jersey home for threatening to assault or murder three Chicago-based judges for refusing to overturn local ordinances banning handguns. An internet posting by Turner said "These judges deserve to be killed." A map showing their courtrooms was posted with a promise to post maps to show their homes later. San Antonio Express News, 6-25-09, p.A2

Gay Rights:--A group of current and former Mormans have created a website that calls upon leaders of the church to end hurtful anti-gay policies.

Defense Spending The White House has threatened to veto a $680 billion military spending bill if it contains funds to continue building the F-22 fighters. Secretary of Defense Gates and the Pentagon say they do not want the planes. San Antonio Express-News, 6-25-09, p A11. But production sites for the fighters are in over thirty states, and Senators don't want to lose jobs--whether we need the planes or not.

- - - - - - - - - -

*Amy Most, The Politics of Race in . . . South Pacific, Theater Journal 52, no3, 306 (as quoted in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youve_Got_To_Be_Caefully_Taught copied 6-23-09)

S/R Report 03: Balanced Military Spending?

2009-06-22T12:17:00.013-04:00

My bias is that the United States spends too much money on military expenditures. I admit that statement is biased, or prejudiced. I hope, through the SR Report to learn about our defense spending and to determine some solid facts about it. If the statistics I present are not accurate, please refer me to a more solid base.

While I am anti-war, I am not anti-military. I have a son who is a Sergeant in the US Army and I am very proud of him and his service. I support a strong military, one which is an adequate deterrent to any would-be adversary. I am a patriotic American, born and raised, who truly loves this land. [So, when I say "but" do not forget these things I have just said.]

But, it seems to me that we spend way too much money on defense. Money which could be applied to very needed domestic projects, or to paying down our national debt.

For example: according to Time Magazine (6-12-09, p. 15)*in 2008:

the United States spent $607 billion on the military
China, France, UK and Russia spent $274 billion combined
The US has 2,000 nuclear warheads on alert for instant launch
The US has spent $903 billion in Afghanistan and Iraq since conflict began

President Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961) is remembered by many for his "Military-Industrial Complex" speech. That farewell address has been used by some to build fear of the growing power of the military and its defense contractors. There is serious concern in that area; many see that speech as an indictment of possible excessive spending for our military on defense projects. But, the primary thrust of Eisenhower's speech was an appeal that we maintain balance in our national spending, not that we weaken our military capabilities. He asked that we keep our priorities in order. He said:

Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our defense; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research -- these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel.

But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs

balance between the private and the public economy,
balance between cost and hoped for advantage
balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable;
balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual;
balance between actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future.

Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration. The text of the complete speech can be found at: this site.

What follows is a short excerpt from Eisenhower's speech. Please remember, prior to being a two-term president of the United States, he was a five-star general in the US Army, and was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces D-Day invasion of Normandy.

Farewell Speech

The first question I raise in this S/R Report is one of balance. Is the amount of money we spend with the Pentagon an appropriate amount, given the other national needs and budget Items?

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

SR Snips:

Hate Crimes: No religion is without its extremists, including those who think killing others is within God's will. Murder is a perversion of God's will and religious people must speak out against this heresy. --Rabbi Barry Block, Temple Beth-El,San Antonio. SA Express-News, 6-20-09

Gay rights: The Georgia Supreme court recently overturned a ban prohibiting a divorced gay man from attending a Little League game, or a concert if his three kids were taking part--and, if his gay partner were with him.--AP, SA Express-News, 6-21-09, p.22.

Defense SpendingThe military has purchased 183 F-22 Raptor fighters and says they probably need 60 more. The fighter costs $353 million each. --Time, 2-23-09, p30-33.

- - - - - - - - - -

*Time got its figures from the Stockholm International Peace Institute.

S/R Rpt 02: Gay Repression & Expression

2009-06-18T13:49:00.007-04:00

Sanity/Respect Report--Focus: hate, gay rights & defense spending
===============================================

June 28, 1969 is a date in American homosexual history revered as a watershed moment. On that date, riots broke out at the Stonewall Inn in New York City in the early morning hours. Those riots are often pointed to as the first instance in American history where gay and lesbian resistance to government-supported persecution took place. It is held to be the start of the gay rights movement in the United States. The following year, June 28, 1970, Gay Pride marches took place in New York and Los Angeles--and are currently held annually throughout the world to mark the Stonewall event.

Suppression of Gays In the 1950s, strong suppressive movements existed with the purpose of controlling and eliminating subversive security risks. The McCarthy hearings led to a somewhat paranoid search for communists and anarchists. The State Department added homosexuals to the list, saying they were enotionally unstable, and thus were subject to blackmai (as security risks). From 1947 to 1950, 1700 federal job applications were denied, 4380 persons were discharged from the armed forces and 420 were fired from their government jobs for being suspected homosexuals.

In the fifties and sixties:

the FBI kept lists of known homosexuals and their friends
the US Postal Service kept track of addresses where homosexual material was mailed
state and local governments shut down gay bars, arrested customers and exposed them in newspapers
the wearing of "opposite gender" clothing was outlawed in some cities
professors suspected of being gay were fired by universities
thousands of gays and lesbians were jailed, fired or institutionalized in mental hospitals

The above material was gleaned from an article in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_riots , reviewed 6-17-09.

Is there any wonder why gays would tend to stay "in the closet" and live in fear of having their sexual orientation disclosed? A homosexual young person, in their twenties or thirties shows great courage in openly declairing their sexual orientation. Even to their parents, who for the most part were culturally conditioned by the "anti-homosexual" culture of the last half of the twentieth century.

I worked as a professional counselor at a mental health facility in the 1970s. I became known as the "gay counselor" because I was one of a very small number of counselors who were willing to counsel with gays. In ten years of counseling I found no homosexual persons who experienced the sexual orientation as a choice. The only person who said it was a c hoice turned out to be a bi-sexual person, not a homosexual person.

Think about it: why would anyone freely choose a sexual life that would bring such hatred and social ostracism? It is not a choice. Think about it. If you are heterosexual, do you remember making that choice regarding your sexual orientation? Think about it. Most heterosexuals are usually repulsed, or at least have an aversion, to same-sex intercourse. Most homosexuals express the same repulsion, aversion to opposite-sex intercourse. Think about it.

SR Snips:
- - - - -
Hate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity or political affiliation.
- - - - -
US Defense The United States has spent $903 billion in Afghanistan and Iraq since hostilities began.
Time, 6-22-09, p. 15
- - - - -
Gay RightsThe Defense of Marriage Act (1996) says that no state needs to treat a relationship between persons of the same sex as a marriage, even if the relationship is considered a marriage in another state. The federal government defines marriage as a legal union exclusively between one man and one woman.

S/R Report 01: HATE is available at this same site. Scroll down.

Sanity/Respect Report 01: HATE

2009-06-17T10:12:00.007-04:00

A World of Hate

"hate 1.a: an intense hostility and aversion usually deriving from fear, anger or sense of injury b:extreme dislike or antipathy . . . 2: an object of hatred."

We live in a time when the fires of fear and anger are being daily stoked. An almost constant parade of evocative words march past our consciousness: Islamic terrorist, socialist government, job loss, foreclosure, nuclear war, baby killers, gay marriage, hate groups . . . . And fear often evolves into hatred. "In time we hate that which we often fear." (Shakespeare)** No wonder it has become sytlish to hate, more than to love.

As seminal as fear may be, anger is an even more potent seedbed for hate: "Anger may repast with thee for an hour, but not repose for a night; the continuance of anger is hatred, the continuance of hatred turns [into] malice." *** A warning regarding anger comes to us from the New Testament, "Let not the sun go down on your wrath."**** Because, holding onto anger, leads to hatred, and holding on to hatred fuels the desire to hurt the object of hate.

Too often we hate because we forget that we are brothers and sisters. We tend to divide the world up into "the good" and "the evil"; and, always "we" are on the side of the good, the honorable, the righteous. We make our divisive issues, e.g., racism, abortion, terrorism, etc., into sides of right and wrong. And we get so polarized in our thinking that it become impossible for us to see any good in the view opposite to ours. Iba Ezra said, "Love blinds us to faults, but hatred blinds us to virtues."

Representing the "other side" as less human than we--demonizing them, making them totally depraved and evil--makes it even more difficult to share a common vision of progress. In fact it makes us slightly paranoid, suspicious that they might do something to harm us. Hear the words of Archibald Macleish, "The man who lives, not by what he loves, but what he hates is a sick man."

With kindness, yet forcefulness, let each of us reduce hatred in our space by diminishing fear, anger and malice.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

S/R SNIPS:

New San Antonio mayor Julian Castro has agreed to serve as the grand marshall of the city's Gay Pride Parade July 4. He is the first SA mayor to agree to so serve.
+++++
In 2008 the US government spent $607 billion to upgrade its military. Other figures, in billions: China was second with $85, followed by France ($66), ($65), Russia ($59). Total world spending; $1.46 trillion.
+++++
Southern Poverty Law Center link: http://splcenter.org/

++++++++++
* http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hate (copied 6/13/09)
** William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Charmian at I, iii)
***. Quarles Francis, no citation
**** Ephesians 4.26, KJV.

Favorite Things

2008-07-25T09:47:00.010-04:00

.
Went through my ITunes "purchased list" this morning (cursorily) and picked my favorite songs (below). I will probably add other favorites (songs, books, food, games, tv shows, movies, etc.) to this list. For now, here are the songs I have picked as "five stars" from ITunes. It seems to me that selecting our "favorites" is a way of understanding ourselves and others better.

FAVORITE SONGS

We Shall Overcome -- Joan Baez

Over the Rainbow -- Karaoke version

No Place But Texas -- Willie Nelson ** (lyrics below)

Both Sides Now -- Neil Diamond *** (partial lyrics below)

It Is No Secret -- Elvis Presley

Always On My Mind -- Willie Nelson

Forever and Ever, Amen. -- Randy Travis

I Came to Believe -- Johnny Cash

Believe -- Josh Groban

Belief -- John Maher * (see lyrics below)

The Closest Thing to Crazy -- Kate Melua

Battle Hymn of the Republic -- Morman Tabernacle Choir

There are a number of contradictory emotions and beliefs expressed in these songs. I am coming to believe that the need for us to strive for consistency in our lives (as a means of achieving integrity) is highly overrated. Honesty and loyalty should not be diminished, but as circumstances in life change, one must be open to embracing new perspectives.

Striving for consistency (e.g., "holiness code stuff") leads to living in denial (or conscious hypocrisy). Our existence is filled with settings in which we are multi-polar, impure, contradictory. Neil Diamond's song "Both Sides Now" tells me of the ways our "conformity-urges" constrict our growth and expression. Humbly, we find freedom as we embrace the illusions of life--which somehow synthesize our experiences.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

*Lyrics "Belief" by John Mayer

Is there anyone who Ever remembers
changing their mind from The paint on a sign?
Is there anyone who really recalls Ever breaking rank at all
For something someone yelled real loud one time

Everyone believes In how they think it ought to be
Everyone believes And they're not going easily

Belief is a beautiful armor But makes for the heaviest sword
Like punching under water You never can hit who you're trying for
Some need the exhibition And some have to know they tried
It's the chemical weapon For the war that's raging on inside

Everyone believes From emptiness to everything
Everyone believes And no ones going quietly

We're never gonna win the world
We're never gonna stop the war
We're never gonna beat this
If belief is what we're fighting for

What puts a hundred thousand children in the sand
Belief can Belief can
What puts the folded flag inside his mother's hand
Belief can Belief can

** Lyrics "No Place But Texas"

God painted the bluebonnets in the fields
By a tough little scrub oak on an East Texas hill
And he plucked the star from a lone star sky
And he put it in the twinkle of a cowboy's eye

The wide open spaces he made wild and free
Texas as far as any eye can see
And he made her sons grow tough and strong
They still cry when they hear a sad song

(Chorus:)
No place but Texas
Would I ever roam
No place but Texas
My home, sweet home
No place but Texas
My home, sweet home

When I die I hope they bury me
By the Pedernales River 'neath a white oak tree
Where I can see the longhorns graze
And the cactus flowers blooming in the morning haze

No place but Texas
Would I ever roam
No place but Texas
My home, sweet home
No place but Texas
My home, sweet home

*** Lyrics: "Both Sides Now"
Rolls and flows of angel hair,
Ice cream castles in the air,
Feather canyons everywhere,
I've looked at clouds that way.
But now they only block the sun.
They rain, they snow on everyone.
So many things I would've done
But clouds got in my way.

I've looked at clouds from both sides now,
From up and down and still somehow
It's clouds' illusions I recall.
I really don't know clouds at all.

. . . .

Tears and fears and feeling proud,
Say "I love you" right out loud.
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds
I've looked at life that way.
But now old friends are acting strange.
They shake their heads and say I've changed.
But something's lost when somethings gained
Living everyday.

I've looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall.
I really don't know life at all.

Election 2008

2008-07-16T11:11:00.001-04:00

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

GOOD FRIDAY?

2008-07-14T07:14:00.006-04:00

.
This sermon was preached at Boerne First United Methodist Church on Good Friday, March 21, 2008.

I was reading on the internet a review of a movie earlier this week when I came upon a warning, in bold print. WARNING: SPOILER AHEAD. What they meant was they were about to tell me the way the movie came out. So if I didn’t want to know how the story ended, I shouldn’t read any more. Knowing how the story ends, takes away from the suspense and emotion of the movie.

I think the same can be said for the passion story.

I have heard it said that we cannot experience the ecstasy and joy of Easter, unless we experience the pain and despair of the crucifixion.

It is an basic part of our human make-up that we try to avoid pain and we seek out pleasure. But it is also true that healing and growth often require pain and sacrifice.

So, tonight, let us listen to the testimony of some of the principle actors in the Good Friday events. We will hear from them as they speak to us on Saturday---the day after the crucifixion, the day before what we call Easter. So at that point, they did not know about the Resurrection

We know that the Jewish day began at sunset. So, “Friday” actually began on our Thursday evening. It included the Last Supper and ended at Sunset the next day.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Our first witness is Peter:

“This is the worst day of my life. First, Jesus wanted to wash my feet and I wouldn’t let him. Then I begged him to wash my feet. I had a hard time knowing what was expected of me. Then Jesus asked me to pray with him when we got to the garden. And, of all things, I fell asleep. The next thing I know the Temple Guard is there, arresting Jesus. I was ready to fight them off, but Jesus said no. Then, early in the morning (or very late last night) I said I didn’t even know him. --- not once, but three times. I was so scared. I wish I’d never been born. And I ran away and hid. Then they killed him on a cross.
WHY DO YOU CALL THIS GOOD FRIDAY?"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
And hear from his mother, Mary:

I worried so much for him, especially those last days. There had been times in his life when our family felt like he was going too far. We tried to help him, but he wouldn’t listen. When he created that ruckus in the temple, earlier this week,I think that was the last straw.
So today as I watched him dying on that cross. I felt like I was dying too. I wish I could have taken his place. My heart has been crushed. I loved him so, and now he is gone. Any mother knows how I feel.
WHY DO YOU CALL THIS GOOD FRIDAY?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Then there was the Roman soldier:

I never wanted to come to this country. And when I got here I was appalled to be assigned to execution squad. Once, my son was terribly ill, and having heard about Jesus, I asked him to heal my son. And he did. That is why I find it so hard to understand why these people wanted to kill Jesus. I watched as my men whipped him. I saw him struggle as he went to Golgotha. It was incredible. Here he was, seemingly despised and hated by everyone, and he asked his Father God to forgive everyone. Then the earth began to move from under my feet, and the sky was covered with a blanket of darkness. I was surprised when I heard my self say, “Surely this is the Son of God.” And then he died.
WHY DO YOU CALL THIS GOOD FRIDAY?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

We call this Good Friday because we see all these events with Resurrection Eyes. But Resurrection eyes can see the risen Lord, only with the cross in the background.

As I heard someone say earlier today, “We know how it all turned out.” So for us the horrible things that happened on that day are more easily accepted. We may want to minimize the suffering of Jesus. We may want to run away from that cross and hide, like his disciples did. But we cannot; not if our salvation has any real meaning.

So here, on this night of all nights, may we meditate and give thanks for the overwhelming sacrifice of love which Jesus give to us.

We call this day Good Friday, because what Jesus did this day and every day of his life, was to erase the condemnation of sin from each of us.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
.

Freedom of / for / from religion

2008-07-08T06:27:00.008-04:00

.
In South Carolina one can now purchase an automobile license plate bearing the emblem of a cross with the words "I believe" embossed on the bottom of the plate. In my own church Sunday, the congregation said in unison (during the call to worship) "our nation was founded as a Christian nation". I take offense to both those expressions and discuss my reasons below.

Some evangelicals tout the United States to have been founded as a Christian nation; yet, nowhere in the founding documents (Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, etc.) is Jesus Christ mentioned. We do have freedom of / for / from religion in this great nation, and I, as a Christian minister, am proud and grateful that we are a secular "republican-democracy" instead of a state-sponsored theocracy.

I know of no religious group which would want a theocratic government dominated by some religious viewpoint other than their own. That is the key reason for rejection of any tinge of state-sponsored religion.

The assumption by most zealous religious groups is that the rest of the population shares (or ought to share) their own perspective. But in the real world, even the seemingly universal Christian statement "I Believe" is open to controversy. The emerging progressive Christian movement holds that a transforming relationship with God is more important than creedal beliefs.

So, can one order a South Carolina license plate which says "I relate"? To take the

argument even further, will other religous perspectives be allowed on the state-issued licenses? The star of David? The crescent? The words, "Hail Mary, full of grace"? Or even "I don't believe"?

Jesse Helms is quoted as saying that when religous critics espouse "freedom of religion" they mean "freedom from religion". While he may have meant that to be a derogatory condemnation of the "non-religious", I find truth in his statement.

While I will defend anyone's right to their own peculiar religious expression, I cherish deeply the protection that I am constitutionally guaranteed to have freedom from the imposition of "their religion" on me. The tyranny of majority religions being forced on minority perspectives presents itself as a sad and despotic stain on freedom's flag.

In the latter part of the 19th century, Methodism was so popular in the United States, it is said, that a movment wanted to delcare it to be the Church of America. As a Methodist, I am extremely happy that idea died away (I am sure my good Baptist friends also agree).

The choice to express, or to refrain from the expression of, theological / religious tenets in this nation must be vigilantly guarded against the efforts of the well-meaning but zealously self-righteous ones who seek the sanction of government.

Lenton Meditation: Pride & Humility

2008-06-21T14:23:00.009-04:00

.
Think with me for a few moments about pride and humility. Mac Davis wrote a song that goes like this:

Lord it’s hard to be humble
when you’re perfect in every way
I can’t wait to look in the mirror
cause I get better lookin’ each day.
Folks, that’s pride.

I’m not talking about taking pride in your work, or being proud to be an American. I’m talking about pride as an arrogance that causes us to believe that we’re better than everybody else

+ A pride that leads us to be self-centered, “stuck up”, conceited,
+ A pride that causes us to think we are the center of the universe.
+ A pride that is the exact opposite of humility.

This kind of pride is the worst sin a human can commit because we come to believe that we no longer need God in our lives. We can handle everything ourselves.

==============================================

Jesus was such an amazing person. When he was baptized he heard the voice of God declaring him to be God’s beloved son. Immediately after that he was tempted by choices we would find impossible to ignore. Just imagine how these situations would look to us today:

+ in the middle of tremendous hunger pains, you are told you can have all the food you want just for the taking.
+ or suppose you are deep in debt and you are offered all the wealth and power of this world, just reach for it.
+ or suppose your life drags through dull routines or blue depressions. You can have a life as exciting as an amusement park roller coaster. Just get on board.

Food, power, money, fame and excitement. And no one would need to know you made a bargain with Satan.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

How could Jesus keep his bearings? How could he remain in the right relationship with God in the face of these temptations? How could he maintain the balance between good self-esteem and humility? Let us look for clues in the Scripture, as found in Philippians 2.

5. Let the same mind be in you
that was in Christ Jesus,
6. who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
7. but emptied himself,
And being found in human form,
8. he humbled himself
and became obedient
to the point of death--
even death on a cross.

Jesus humbled himself and became obedient to his Father. Let us have the same mind in us that was in Christ Jesus.

Humility comes from placing ourselves squarely in the middle of God’s will. And we maintain our relationship with God by being obedient to that will.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives us the secret for avoiding sinful pride and finding life-giving humility. He speaks of three religious practices which can be either destructive or constructive of our relationship to God. He speaks of charitable giving, praying and fasting (or acts of piety).

He criticized those persons

+ who gave great amounts of money so others would think highly of them.
+ who prayed out in front of others so they would appear righteous.
+ who would fast and tell others so their “holiness” might be seen.

But aren’t we supposed to tithe and pray and do acts of piety? Well, sure we are, but the motive in our heart determines whether the act is good or evil.

To all these practices, giving money, praying, and other holy acts, Jesus tells us one thing is important: do them in secret. In secret, and your reward will come from your heavenly Father.

This Lenten season, I would ask you to consider pursuing acts of piety in secret. If you decide to give charity to a needy person, do so in secret. If you choose to abstain from some food or some activity, do so in secret. If you decide not to pray out in public, do it in your closet, in secret. And you will be blessed.

But beware of taking pride in your humble acts. Self-blessing is a first cousin to self-righteousness, which is the child of pride.

Middle East Allies, Oil, American Negligence

2008-03-28T10:57:00.025-04:00

.
A quote from Barack Obama:

Let's fight to make sure our so-called allies in the Middle East, the Saudis and the Eqyptians, stop oppressing their own people, and suppressing dissent, and tolerating corruption and inequality and mismanaging their economies so that their youth grow up without education, without prospects, without hope, the ready recruits of terrorist cells.

--Speech at anti-Iraq War rally in Chicago, October 26, 2002
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The Bush administration, and I suspect others prior, have pussy-footed around with the Saudis, in particular, because of our dependency on oil. We have known of this dependency for decades but have done very little to change the situation. In the meantime, even though most (all?) of the 911 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia, and even though Osama Bin Laden is the son of one of the most powerful families in Saudi Arabia, President Bush continues to kiss their cheeks and walk hand in hand with them, proclaiming our strong alliance.--Conrad

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

More Obama:

Our persistentent dependence on oil is a danger our government has known about
for years. And despite constant warnings by researchers and scientists, major corporations and our own government officials, it's a danger they have failed
to prepare for, listen to, or seriously try to guard against. It's a danger we can no longer afford to ignore.

"Securing Our Energy Future" speech, Sept. 15, 2005

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

And gasoline prices continue to climb. This increase is at the very least the result of Dick Cheney's secret crafting of an energy policy in conjunction with the president of the oil companies. The minutes of that meeting are not available. McCain wants four more years of the same. --Conrad

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Obama:

Saying that America is addicted to oil without following a real plan for energy independence is like admitting alcololism and then skipping the 12-step program.

Chicago Tribune, April 3, 2006.

The 12-step program requires real sacrifice, much pain, and a desire for change. The Bush program is to tell consumers to buy more, ignore the pain (it will work things out on its own) and, never forget, "change" is something we should fear.

Nearly all Americans know we are in deep doo-doo right now (most of the ones who do not recognized this are in Washington). We owe the next generation's liquidity to China. We stare at the possibility of $5 a gallon gasoline this summer. Food prices are rising sharply. San Antonio Texas (where I live) is facing higher dangers from ozone pollution. A kid from South Texas helped push our armed casulties (that's deaths) in Iraq to over 4,000. They've pretty much stopped building houses in our sub-division (and there are at least 40-50 lots open). Corporations continiue to move out; people are still being laid off. And we are told by our president that the economy is basically strong.

And I have picked a heck of a time to age into retirement. Click on Barack Obama. Read more about Barack's positions, and make a donation to his campaign!

--Conrad

Sixty-year-old Anger and Memory Suppression

2008-03-21T15:52:00.004-04:00

I do not buy into the misguided mantra of the radical conservative white propogandists that Reverend Wright preaches hate sermons every Sunday for the twenty years that Obama was a member of Trinity UCC. Sermons like that are too strong to be heard week after week. I know the Sunday after 9-11, in Sonora Texas (where the political weathervane of the Southwest is turned) I preached what I now consider a rather radical speech.

I used Joshua 5 as a text: Joshua, on the morning prior to invading the promised land, encounters an image of a soldier. "Are you for us or against us?" Joshua asked the soldier. "Neither, I am the Commander of the Lord's army." Humble yourself. Did you get that? The Commander of the Army of the Lord refused to take sides---with the Children of Isreal or the Canaanites.

I preached that we Americans, in the wake of 9-11, could not count on God being on our side. After all, both Germany and America claimed divine support for WWII. And I preached about how our prayer should not be "God bless America", but rather than "America should seek to bless God".

Rather than talking about vengeance (which truly only belongs to God alone), we stood at a moment of profound importance for our future. We could do as Jesus said, "Turn the other cheek" and reach out in reconciliation; or we could seek revenge.

I know that sounds profoundly naieve. Our natural instincts are usually to strike back at any aggressor. But just imagine the impact it would have had on the world, if we had taken a different course: had not invaded Iraq, called for an international conference to discuss grievances, and included the Arab and Muslim nations. What if we had really tried to understand the motives of those who destroyed the Twin Towers? What if we had not responded with war, but with peace?; What do you honestly think Jesus would have done if the choice were his?

I know my words were not in the same league with Rev Wright; but I also see and recognize the anger and resentment of the generation of blacks in America who grew up with you and me--those of us born in the 1940,s). In Meridian Texas (where I grew up), we had no blacks in our school; and I never thought a thing about it. But you can bet the black kids who were being bussed 76 miles every day to Gatesville and back--they thought about it.

I remember being in Huntsville, Texas on my honeymoon (all we could afford) in 1964. I went into a local drugstore and had the clerk tell me I had missed something special this morning. "We had a dragging, right down main street". Maybe you and I have forgotten about the draggings of the past (can we say "Jasper"?) but I am sure that the blacks of our generation still think about it.

I remember the colored only and white only water fountains, as do you. And so do the sixty-year old blacks who grew up with our generation. How would you feel, if you had been pushed to the back of the bus, denied a drink of water, or the use of a restroom by a white supremecy philosophy.

And now, Barack wants us to talk about it. And we can only yell back words of hatred to all the Reverend Wrights of the world. What a turn it would be to have Bishop Tutu, the spiritual giant of South Africa, come to the United States and lead us in a movement of reconciliation. {Tutu led a nation-wide reconciliation movement in South Africa.]

I hope and expect our nation to take this moment and move a significant notch or two toward a new acceptance. I don't expect miracles, just progress. And if it happens, Barack will have played a major role in this generation.

As Governor Richardson just said, "You (Barack) are a once-in-a-lifetime leader."

Barack Obama: Racism March 18, 2008

2008-03-18T13:42:00.002-04:00

RACISM IN AMERICA
Barack Obama
March 18, 2008

[For a short period of time you can view the entire speech at:
Racism

Philadelphia. “In order to establish a more perfect union, …”

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution –
a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part - through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.

This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign - to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together - unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction - towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.

This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.

I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I've gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners - an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

It's a story that hasn't made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts - that out of many, we are truly one.

Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.

This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either "too black" or "not black enough." We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.

And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.

On one end of the spectrum, we've heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it's based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we've heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely - just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country - a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way

But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God's work here on Earth - by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:

"People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend's voice up into the rafters….And in that single note - hope! - I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion's den, Ezekiel's field of dry bones. Those stories - of survival, and freedom, and hope - became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn't need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish - and with which we could start to rebuild."

That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety - the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.

And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions - the good and the bad - of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.

But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America - to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.

The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through - a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.

Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, "The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past." We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven't fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today's black and white students.

Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments - meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today's urban and rural communities.

A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family, contributed to the erosion of black families - a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods - parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement - all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.

This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What's remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.

But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn't make it - those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations - those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright's generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician's own failings.

And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience - as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren't always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.

Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze - a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns - this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.

This is where we are right now. It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy - particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.

But I have asserted a firm conviction - a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people - that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.

For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances - for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives - by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.

Ironically, this quintessentially American - and yes, conservative - notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright's sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country - a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen - is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope - the audacity to hope - for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds - by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.

In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand - that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle - as we did in the OJ trial - or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time." This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.

This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don't have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.

This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.

This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should've been authorized and never should've been waged, and we want to talk about how we'll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.

I would not be running for President if I didn't believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation - the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.

There is one story in particularly that I'd like to leave you with today - a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King's birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.

There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.

And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.

She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.

She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.

Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother's problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn't. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.

Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they're supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he's there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, "I am here because of Ashley."

"I'm here because of Ashley." By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.

But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.

Don't tell momma, I voted for Obama!

2008-02-14T15:28:00.017-05:00

.

"I believe America stands on the edge of a great gulf of opportunity. We have a chance to throw off the stifling control of our nation by the powerful and claim it once again for the common man."

Thus spoke the old preacher after listening to a speech by Barack Obama.

"I firmly believe that John McCain is either under the control of the military-industrial complex, or he and his pro-war cronies drive that mechanism. And, I firmly believe that Hillary Clinton, though very well intentioned (for the most part) is beholden to the very power centers she claims she wants to reform."

"One man stands apart from those overwhelming forces," continued the old preacher. "One man has captured the imagination of the informed middle-class. One man has been gifted by God with the vision, the sinewy strength and the discerning wisdom to lead us across, or through, that gulf--which so long has boundaried us on the shore.

"I have waited for this man for nigh fifty years. I appeal to you, America, do not let this moment slip away because you did nothing to support this man.

"Vote, yes; but more than that, find a way to work for his success. Go to work for America's future. Go to work for Barack Obama.

A criticism levelled by Hillary Clinton toward Barack Obama is that he is full of promises, but short on solutions. Clinton says Obama has no specifics, no plans for what he wants to accomplish or details on how to carry them out.

You are invited to read Obama's specific, detailed proposals on: civil rights, disabilities, the economy, education, energy, environment, faith, family, fiscal policy, foreign policy, healthcare, homeland security, immigration, Iraq, rural, service to country, seniors, Social Security, technology, veterans, and others.
Go to Obama's website and click on Issues.

It is necessary to spell out one's intentions, however this election is less about specific intentions and more about the overall thrust and style of leadership. This election is about the middle class and how the major corporations can be helped (guided by a new tax policy) to unleash their ability to revive the American enonomy. This election is about a turnover in the administrative, bureaucratic mind set which has been channeled by the Bushes and Clintons for the last twenty years.

The tens of thousands who rally to hear Obama speak, do not come to be informed about health care or social security. They come to be inspired with the hope that it is not too late. Not too late for America to turn the page from the economic plunder of the middle class to a balanced healthy economic structure. They come to hear the promise that their brothers, sisters, sons and daughters might be brought home from the Middle East. They come to gain confidence for the fight, to be filled with hope, to be united with the chant, "Yes, We Can".

Listen to an Ohio radio ad just put on the air today (2-14).
Scroll down and double click on the arrow below "Listen here" Click here

Caroline Kennedy Endorses Barack Obama

2008-01-27T19:18:00.000-05:00

.
This editorial endorsement by Caroline Kennedy (daughter of President John F. Kennedy), appeared first in the New York Times on January 27.

OVER the years, I’ve been deeply moved by the people who’ve told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama.

My reasons are patriotic, political and personal, and the three are intertwined. All my life, people have told me that my father changed their lives, that they got involved in public service or politics because he asked them to. And the generation he inspired has passed that spirit on to its children. I meet young people who were born long after John F. Kennedy was president, yet who ask me how to live out his ideals.

Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible.

We have that kind of opportunity with Senator Obama. It isn’t that the other
candidates are not experienced or knowledgeable. But this year, that may not be enough. We need a change in the leadership of this country — just as we did in 1960.

Most of us would prefer to base our voting decision on policy differences. However, the candidates’ goals are similar. They have all laid out detailed plans on everything from strengthening our middle class to investing in early childhood education. So qualities of leadership, character and judgment play a larger role than usual.

Senator Obama has demonstrated these qualities throughout his more than two decades of public service, not just in the United States Senate but in Illinois, where he helped turn around struggling communities, taught constitutional law and was an elected state official for eight years. And Senator Obama is showing the same qualities today. He has built a movement that is changing the face of politics in this country, and he has demonstrated a special gift for inspiring young people — known for a willingness to volunteer, but an aversion to politics — to become engaged in the political process.

I have spent the past five years working in the New York City public schools and have three teenage children of my own. There is a generation coming of age that is hopeful, hard-working, innovative and imaginative. But too many of them are also hopeless, defeated and disengaged. As parents, we have a responsibility to help our children to believe in themselves and in their power to shape their future. Senator Obama is inspiring my children, my parents’ grandchildren, with that sense of possibility.

Senator Obama is running a dignified and honest campaign. He has spoken eloquently about the role of faith in his life, and opened a window into his character in two compelling books. And when it comes to judgment, Barack Obama made the right call on the most important issue of our time by opposing the war in Iraq from the beginning.

I want a president who understands that his responsibility is to articulate a vision and encourage others to achieve it; who holds himself, and those around him, to the highest ethical standards; who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American Dream, and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and make us believe again that our country needs every one of us to get involved.

I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.

Caroline Kennedy is the author of “A Patriot’s Handbook: Songs, Poems, Stories and Speeches Celebrating the Land We Love.”

Diminishing Time

2008-01-01T09:09:00.000-05:00

Not shooting for morbidity here, just realizing that whether the year is 2008 or 2007 or 2009 does not matter much anymore.

Retirement slowly ebbs onto my beach and with it an erosion of many formerly valued goals. Goals which have always been "out there" somewhere, perched on a chronological shelf, tantalizing, offering an ineffable and uncapturable joie d'accompli.

Retirement robs so many missions of their excitement and meaning. Meanings that were grounded in numerics, or visions of unrealized hopes or graspings. Meanings which have slowly dribbled from the now-empty pail--which is finally set down with no regret.

Now, the peeling away of seconds, hours and days reveals narcissistic extensions, cloaked in an assumed, indefinable holiness, which millinnea of efforts have failed to touch. Not even the hem of a holy robe.

And at last, alas, it does not matter.

What matters is the perfection of . . . obsessions (true for my tribe, if not for yours). Getting my matters ordered. Chipping off those barnacles which seemed so intriguing along the way. Flushing shames and guilts. All to be given away, placed in the recycle bin, or set on a small shelf, handy for the final journey.

What matters is learning to speak a simpler, common guileless language understood by all.

What matters is finding a way to mesh with my spouse in such a way that the time together is synchronized. So that goodness erases or eases prevous hurt. Smoothness of movement.

What matters is amplifying the joy and softening the pain for my children, and theirs.

What matters is dropping the cloak of chronos (quantitative time) for the qualitative time, sometimes called kairos.

Time waits for no man, they say. But it can slow down, before it stops.

Levon Helm, an Epiphany

2007-12-11T13:49:00.000-05:00

Just had an epiphanous moment, and the means only shows that these moments are packaged individually in a special way.

Was listening to Fresh Air on NPR (12-11-07) and heard interview with Levon Helm. Helm used to play backup for Dylan and Morrison. He got throat cancer, recovered somewhat, and now has an album out called Dirt Farmer. I loved the song about crossing over the Wild River and went to NPR website to find out more.

Discovered this Helm guy played the character of a recluse in northern Mexico in a
Tommy Lee Jones movie, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada—which I have praised earlier. This blind recluse had only a small part, but struck me as doing a really good job.

Now I want to share with you some of his music. You can go to Itunes and pick up a song or two, or you can go to NPR http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17103316
and hear some of his songs.

I was blown away. Of course, the Lord of Music may have meant this frequency just for me; but then, you might like it too.

Thank God You're Not a Woman

2007-12-01T12:40:00.000-05:00

“Thank God, you’re not a woman!” were the words that met me at one of my new appointments as pastor. Granted there had been some problems in the church before I arrived; however, none of the problems could directly be attributed to the fact that my predecessor was a woman.

Perhaps there were indirect difficulties my female colleague encountered, but I suspect those were mainly extensions of prejudice against women pastors. I am convinced, for the most part the successful pastorate of a person depends much less on their gender and much more on their ability to get along with others.

I am also convinced that without women pastors, the United Methodist Church (UMC), especially in SW Texas, would be structured much differently today. Perhaps as many as 75 of our smaller churches would be closed for lack of a minister.

So it was of interest recently when Time Magazine reported that 213 women priests were ordained by the Church of England last year. For the first time since the Anglican fellowship started to ordain women in 1994 the number of women ordained outnumbered the number of men (210). [Overall there are 7,001 ordained men in the Anglican priesthood, compared with 1,495 women.]

These numbers prompted me to count the number of ordained men and women in the Southwest Texas Annual Conference UMC. Informally I determined that there are 164 women with a total of 720 ordained ministers (c. 556 men). [These numbers are approximate because they include persons who are retired, and those working in special appointments (non-parish). Also, gender was determined by tallying first names on a “probable gender” basis, e.g. Bob = male; Judy = female. ]

The SWTx Conference is but one of five conferences in Texas; and just a small fraction of the national church. However, its number of women ordained or commissioned this past conference year were eight out of a total of eleven persons. This past year the quantity of those set apart for ministry was rather small; however for several years now the trend of more women than man being ordained has continued (according to my memory)

Presently, two of six District Superintendents in the SWTx Conference are women. And the presiding bishop of the Texas Conference, Janice Huie, is a native of this conference and former DS here. The pastor of the third largest church in our conference is a woman.

To add a new dimension to this gender focus comes a story of Ann Gordon, pastor of St. John United Methodist Church in Baltimore. For five years Ann has been the clergy leader at this church
This past annual conference, she was reappointed to the church with a new name: Drew Phoenix, because she has had a gender-change procedure and is now a male. Reports are that she/he has been warmly received at St. John’s.

But anything but a warm reception awaits the issue of gender change at the next General Conference of the United Methodist Church in 2008. I am sure the conservative wing of the Church is delighted to have new meat to chew on.

Until then, it is very intriguing to me to imagine a new gender-changed pastor coming to a first meeting with a new church member who might exclaim to her/him: “Thank God you’re a man who changed from being a woman.” Or, depending on your prejudice, “Thank God you are a woman who used to be a man.”.

Listening to Life from both Sides Now

2007-11-21T10:00:00.000-05:00

For the past year or so, some very interesting reading has been appearing in the Southwest Texas Annual Conference (United Methodist) bi-weekly newspaper, The Witness.

I would characterize the letters to the editor, by Dan Adams and J. David Trawick as examples of progressive and evangelical theology. Dan is a retired minister and a member of our conference. David is pastor of Northwest Hills United Methodist Church in San Antonio.

Recently Dan Adams posted a letter calling for the "desacralization" of the Bible and a deeper consideration of what the Bible says. David countered with a letter which said that the view of desacralizing the Bible was flawed reasoning.

I have just concluded a class based on "progressive" ideas and was privileged to have one-third of the class of a conservative, even fundamental mind set. The other two-thirds could have been labelled moderate and progressive. And the class went very well because a spirit of listening and understanding was followed by all.

Dan and David do us all a great service by their discussions. A great difficulty of polemical thinking is the tendency to circle up the wagons and kill off all the "heathen" out there. That concern prompted the following letter to the editor of The Witness, published last week.

Thanks to Dan Adams (“We should desacralize, critically consider what Bible says,” Sept. 28), J. David Trawick (“View on desacralized Bible follows flawed reasoning,” Oct. 12) and many others for keeping the dialogue going between the progressive and evangelical views in our great body.

Our church can learn from both, so long as we invest time in listening and understanding all sides. One thing I learned from John Wesley and Albert Outler was that Wesley was a conjunctive theologian, not a disjunctive one. Wesley saw value in all sides of a discussion and tried not to eliminate one at the expense of the other. Oh, he had his polemical causes, but for the most part he was very inclusive.

The risk we all face with our passionate disagreements is that we will cease to love one another. The risk is that our common love might turn into uncommon pride and self-righteousness. When the focus becomes “my-way-or-the-highway,” we risk finding ourselves categorized as “sounding brass or tinkling cymbals.”

And that tendency to self-righteousness (to which all sides are vulnerable) is one of the most threatening factors in church unity. It is a function of the Holy Spirit to promote unity in the church. To be outside of the spirit of unity, is to be outside the movmement of the Holy Spirit, it seems to me. I cannot for the life of me find Jesus desiring to be separated from the unclean or the demonized. Even the Pharises and Temple leaders were welcome in his presence when they came to him in a congenial spirit.
Let us listen. Let us strive to understand. Let us reach out, rather than push away; and thus be enveloped by the spirit of God.

A Progressive Bibliography

2007-11-21T09:42:00.001-05:00

.
Here are some materials and books which have been helpful along the way:

Altizer, Thomas JJ and William Hamilton. Radical Theology and
the death of god. Indianapolis:
Bobbs-Merril Company, 1966.

Published in the mid-1960s, this thinking, following Neitzsche, proclaims the actual death of God, as a historical event in our time. Much analysis of subjective/objective faith is done. Altizer finds much compatibility with many contemporary progressives in saying, "Jesus is himself the exact opposite of Christianity."

Bultmann, Rudolf. Primitive Christianity.
Cleveland: World Publishing, Meridian Books,1956.

This work is primariy a look at the various factors that impacted the formation of the fundmental doctrines of the Christian faith during the first two centuries of its development.

__________. Theology of the New Testament.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1951,1953,

A two-volumn study on the meaning and message of the Christian message. Comprehensive, classic Bultmann.

__________. Jesus and the Word. New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons,1958.

Groundbreaking work on a number of Xn topics: Scripture's authority, the god of the future, prayer, faith, God the Father. To understand where progressive theology is today, one must have some knowledge of Bultmann--not always an easy read.

__________. Jesus Christ and Mythology,
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1958.

One of the greatest Christian scholars of the mid-twentieth century, Bultmann's name is almost a synonym for "demytholigizing" the Scriptures. He was constantly and sometimes visciously attacked by the fundamentalists. Here he clearly spells out his teaching and defends it brilliantly.

Borg, Marcus J. Reading the Bible Again for the First
Time. San Francisco,HarperSanFrancisco, 2001.

One of the most readable and understandable biblical scholars of our time, who says the Bible is not a divine product, but a human product, telling the stories and testimonies of those individuals and communities who have had, and continue to have encounters with the living Christ. The Bible is "history remembered" and metaphorically recorded. Borg is among those progressive theologians who will become known as those who made the Bible relevant again to modern man.

__________ The Heart of Christianity. Rediscovering
a Life of Faith. San Francisco,
Harper-SanFrancisco, 2003

Vital Christianity is not about "belief". We can believe many wonderful things yet still behave scandalously. In other words, whether one believes in the literalness of Scriptures is fruitless unless there is this a transforming relationship with the living God. And at the heart of that relationship is dynamic love for truth and justice.

Borg, Marcus J. and Dominic Crosson, The Last Week.
the Day-by-Day Account of Jesus' Final Week in Jerusalem. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006.

I have only read the first chapter, but this book looks to be an excellent read for Lent, or Holy Week. The authors lay out the conflict between the Roman Empire and the young Christian movement in a way not often considered.

Borg, Marcus, J. and Dominic Crosson, The First Christmas.
What the gospels really teach about Jesus' birth.
New York: Harper One, 2007.

This book strips away the sentamentalism that has gathered around the nativity story for two thousand years, and gives fresh new meaning to the birth of Jesus. A great Advent read.

Crossan, John Dominic. The Historical Jesus. San Francisco:
HarperSanFrancisco, 1991. 502 pp.

In the field of studies about the
historical Jesus, this book stands out. It is readable, scholarly, fair
and clear. Painstaking in detail. Continues in the tradition of Albet Schweitzer. Crossan is a member of the Jesus Seminar.

Davies, J.G. The Early Christian Church. A history of its
first five centuries. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1967.

Published 42 years ago, this book remains a foundational text of early Church history. This book was one of my textbooks in seminary.

Ehrman, Bart. D. Misquoting Jesus. The Story
behind who changed the Bible and why.
San Francisco: Harber Collins, 2005.

I have misplaced my copy of this book, but I remember it as being an
excellent study on the way differing manuscripts of the gospels have come
to be. Scribal interjections, deletion of offensive
passages, harmonizing various verses to fit the understanding of the church,
etc. Ehrman is beginning to make his mark as a top-notch scholar.

Fox, Matthew. The Coming of the Cosmic Christ.
San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1980.

It has been many years since I first picked up this
book. I remember Fox making a case for the Christ to be an
appelation that transcends Jesus, perhaps even incorporation other earthly
religions. If you remember differently, pleaso commet.

Funk, Robert W. and Roy W. Hoover & the Jesus Seminar.
The Five Gospels. What Did Jesus Really Say? New York:
New York: Macmillan Publishing, Polebridge Press 1993.

A truly marvelous and ground-breaking book in which .c 150
modern biblical scholars opine on the four gospels---considering which verses
are authentically Jesus. It also includes a copy of the Gospel of
Thomas. Not for the more conservative reader.

James, William. The Varieties of Religious Experience.
New York: Collier Books, 1961

Mitchell, Stephen. The Gospel According to Jesus.
New York: Harper Perennial, 1991.

Otto, Rudolf. The Idea of the Holy.
London: Oxford University Press, 1923

Ricker, George M. What You Don't Have to Believe to
be a Christian. Austin: Sunbelt-Eakin, 2002.

Robinson, James M. The Gospel of Jesus. In
Search of the Original Good News. San Francisco:
HarperSanFrancisco, 2005.

Robinson, John A.T. Honest to God.
Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1963.

__________. The Human Face of God. Philadelphia:
Westminster Press, 1973.

Sanders, James A. From Sacred Story to Sacred Text.
Philadelphia: Fortress Press,1987.

Spong, John Shelby . Rescuing the Bible from
Fundamentalism. San Francisco:
HarperSanFrancisco, 1991.

__________. Born of a Woman. A Bishop Rethinks
the birth of Jesus. San Francisco:
HarperSanFrancisco, 1992.

__________. This Hebrew Lord. San Francisco:
HarperSanFrancisco, 1993.

__________. A New Christianity for a New World.
San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001.

Spong, Christine M. Ed. The Bishop's Voice.
New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1999.

Tillich, Paul. The New Being. New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1955.

__________. The Shaking of the Foundations.
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1948.

__________. The Eternal Now. New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1963.

Ward, Keith. What the Bible Really Teaches.
New York: Crossroad Publishing, 2004.

Ward's thesis is that many of those who most loudly proclaim Bible truths, do not actually know the Bible. Rather, they have memorized key verses which support their peculiar perspective, and use those verses over an over in polemical argument. In this book, Ward lays out what the Bible actually teaches about a wide range of doctrinal statements.

[currently working on this list. ca]

Progressive Sustenance

2007-11-15T10:08:00.000-05:00

.
I just finished last night, a ten-week study at our church called "Saving Jesus from the Radical Right and the Secular Left". I wish I had had the courage and the audience to teach it to some twenty years ago. Impediments, sadly, were my fear and the perception that no one wanted to hear what progressive Christianity (Xnty) had to say.

First, my fear. My impression is that 80% of United Methodist people in southwest Texas are conservative, meaning that a sizable portion are active fundamentalists, a larger portion are involved evangelicals and the rest of that 80% are passive, status quo conservatives. Of these folks, I have been confronted by some

with disbelief ["You don't listen to Focus on the Family!"],

with outrage ["If you don't believe in demons, you don't believe the Bible".] and

with condemnation [You can't be a Xn if you don't believe the Bible is literally true and infallible.]

In my younger days, I was saddled with Jesus saying that it would be better to have a large stone tied around my neck and that I be cast into the lake than for me to tear down the faith of the little ones. I used that teaching to defend my unwillingness to challenge any of the "little ones".

I was wrong; and now at the age of 66 and now standing on the edge of retirement I have come to understand that my fear had more to do with my own need to be "acceptable" and the ill-founded concern for the advancement of my "career", than the fear of being thrown in the lake.

In 1 John 2 the writer delineates three stages of Xn growth: (1) little children, (2) young adults, and (3) mature Xns. So often I and a vast number of educated United Methodist ministers (who ought to know better) have opted to retard the growth of our "faithful" by preaching a harmless, self-centered, salvation gospel to the static congregations in our charge. When the struggles of the"young adults" have arisen, we, for the most part, have smoothed them over and put the children back into their beds. We have ignored the yearning of so many of our faithful to understand the "mysteries of our faith" that are reserved for those who are mature.

My fear to share my understanding of the "mysteries" is rooted in my own cowardice; and perhaps for my own selfish concern for my "career". So much for fear.

Is there an audience in our churches for dialog concerning progressive theology? I think there is. In my just-finished class of 15, at least five of the student were "conservative to fundamentalist", three t0 five were moderate and the others hopelessly liberal or progressive.

I recruited this class by stating my intention to teach a class of "progressive theology"---or for the unsophisticated, "liberal" theology. Perhaps 25 folks expressed an interest. I asked each of them to read the first chapter of Marcus Borg's book, "Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time". (see Blog Archives, May and the above title) then, if they wanted to take the course, to email me. Fifteen or so did, and we had a great class.

Admittedly, if I had offered this class at some of my smaller, rural churches the class might have been very small, and there might have been even more criticism. But the effort is definitely worth it. We must ask ourselves, how many members of our churches have drifted away because they needed a theology of more substance than what was being offered? How many members of our church have become static and bored with their church relationship, because they are being fed milk, when they need a more substantive food?

In this great church of ours, founded by a man who asked only "Is your heart like my heart?" surely there is a place for our progressive members, within the fold.

[See the blog, Progressive Bibliography, for resources.]

Greasy, Smelly, Selfish, Hard-hearted . . .

2007-11-13T10:17:00.000-05:00

One of the most grievous things this Bush administration ever did occurred when VP Cheney invited the heads of the major oil companies to his office and secretly drew up the energy plan for the country---secretly. And it's still a secret, but the results are floating to the surface, as gasoline prices hit $3.00 a gallon (on the way to $4.00?). Why?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Chrysler, Ford, General Motors and Toyota Have announced they will oppose a fuel economy stardard of 35 mpg this year. Honda and Nissan support it. Why are the four largest auto makers in the world opposed to this fuel-saving standard?Why?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Oil tankers are required to be double-hulled so as to help prevent spillage of their cargos. Freighters are single-hulled, so when the Cosco Busan scraped into a bridge in the San Francisco bay, 58,000 gallons of "bunker" oil (whatever that is) spilled into the bay. The fuel tanks could be double-hulled like tankers,but they are not. Why?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Any person with any heart for animals must find deeply felt emotion at looking at what this oil spill has done to this poor creature. And it will happen again

Why?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

President Bush vetoed a plan to provide insurance to the poorest children in our nation. He said it would be too costly primarily because congress intended to fund the cost by taxing cigarettes (impacting the tobacco corporations). This cost assessment from the man who will spend a trillion dollars [$1,000,000,000,000) on the war in Iraq. The man who spends millions of dollars trying to support a dictatorship in Pakistan. The man who cherishes the tax cuts for the wealthy. Yet, health care for the children is too costly? Why?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

One word tells us why: Greed.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A few years ago, there was a movie, Wall Street which starred Michael Douglas. At one point he is giving a speech to the tycoons of finance and he says, "Greed is good." The only greater example of this self-justification, this ethical distortion is exhibited by many of the "wealthy elite" in our culture today.

The dictionary definition of greed is "wanting excessively to have or acquire; desiring more than one needs or deserves; avarice, cupidity (strong desire).

I would contend that greed is not good, rather it is evil. To want to possess more than we need is to "build up treasure here on earth". And one no less than Jesus condemned such behavior. And yet, greed is a prime mover in the motivations of this "richest nation on earth".

Another word has been tarnished and cracked because it hides behind greed: politics. Our political system is broken. Yet the front-runners in both parties have political machines that are masters at manipulating the people. Through the use of false patriotism and fear, the Bush administration herded us into their corral, until, in the last year the American people began to wake up and think for themselves. And we are begining to see that corporations with their super-millonaire CEOs and their armies of lobbyists, control the politicians.

The propoganda mills of the political system are beginning to crank up again. Watch out for the fear words, beware of the "socialized medicine" scare (when you hear that phrase, think "insurance profits" and "pre-existing conditions"), beware of the great danger of the military-industrial complex. Hang on for "swift-boat" type campaigning which no party will claim responsibility for. All this "Limbaugh" type skewed truth is already beginning to surface. It's all coming around again.

To break the power of greed and to turn the page on political dynasties, to support real change . . .

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Support Barack Obama!

www.barackobama.com

this Saturday: Countdown to Change: Barack at the Backyard,

Austin, Texas (see website above)

Michael Bloomberg

2007-11-09T09:18:00.000-05:00

.
I viewed an MSNBC interview of Michael Bloomberg (mayor of NY City), done by John Meacham yesterday. I was impressed [I admit I am easily impressed; and also hungry for a presidential candidate who can win and do the job well].

Bloomberg seems to be an inclusive centrist with the ability to pull people together. Imagine that! People pulling together. He says he is not running for president; however, he resigned from the Republican party a couple of months ago. That act enables him to run a "third party" campaign as an independent. He grew up a Democrat and has good social values (not the same as "social conservative" values).

He is a billionaire with a conscience. He could finance his own campaign. He is fascinating to listen to (meaning he can talk in complete sentences with wit). He has a good vision as to how a president should function.

He will be on the cover of Newsweek this weekend. He may not run as an independent; but, some are saying a Bloomberg/Hagel (Republican anti-war Senator from Nebraska) ticket would be unbeatable.

I have just about given up on the Democrats. I am convinced that Hillary would be crucified by the Republicans. Obama would not stand up to Guiliani (at least, the general public would not think so: intellectual vs. bully). [Yes, I wrote this before Obama came out of his shell Saturday (11-10) in Iowa at the Jefferson/Jackson dinner. So long as he continues to speak to the issues and do battle with Hillary, I will support him. --CA 11-13]
Edwards is too cute. Biden might have great ideas but is unelectable (he really does talk too much; and then there is that perjury thing from the past). What to do. Not a single Republican candidate really is presidential.

So I wait and watch. Bloomberg?

Out Sourcing Frustrations

2007-11-07T12:22:00.000-05:00

.
It's cheaper in the short run, this off-shore customer service project. But I feel certain that it will prove to be more costly in the long run.

Three days ago I called Time Warner customer service because I was not able to connect with the internet. I waited twenty-five minutes, all the time being assured that "all agents are busy but I would be taken care of shortly". Finally an agent came on the line.

I suspect the fellow I was talking to ("Francis") was in India or some other place far away. He spent ten minutes attempting to verify that I was a TW customer. "I don't find you in either of our customer data bases." Reading off my latest bill all sorts of identifying numbers did no good. Finally, he used the serial number of my modem to determine that my modem belonged to someone named "Polanski".

Another ten minutes or so of mystifying instructions (turn off your modem, turn it on, click the standby button, turn off your computer, turn it back on) and the verdict was rendered: I needed a new modem. Francis would transfer me to a local number and they would tell me how to get my new modem.

Okay, Harry came on the line (he sounded like a Texan) and told me I did not need a new modem. He said he could tell by looking at some dials on his computer that my modem was working fine. I thought, "why couldn't I have talked to Harry first?" but then he told me that my router was the problem, and he could not help me since Time-Warner does not issue routers.

Frustrated to the core, I went into the living room and drank a Coke. Fifteen minutes later I returned to my computer, and lo and behold! I had internet.

The Next Day: I tried to reach Sears to get an automatic garage door fixed. I will spare you the details, but they did not have me in their database either. [Is this a ploy?] This time I spoke to "Aldo" who sounded just like Francis. After fifteen minutes of search around I was told that a repairman would come to my house the next day. I hung up wondering if Aldo had a garage, or if he even knew what it meant to get you garage door track bent out of shape.

Okay, the next day I get a call from someone, saying my repairman needs directions to my house. She asked me to call 800/469-4663 to give directions. If you call that number, you will get ahold of Francis, Aldo or some compatriot; and more than likely they will not have you in their database. After fifteen munutes of being unidentified, I told Aldo I would try to handle it locally.

On my cell phone, there was a "missed call" number this same morning. Suspecting it might be the repair man I called it and got lucky. However, when I told him my problem, he said he could not fix it. "But Aldo in India said you could fix it. I explained the problem very carefully to him." "Sorry but I only work on garage door openers, not garage doors." And, as in an act of consolation, he told me that if he had made it to my house, I would have been charged $65 to hear him tell me that he could not fix my problem. This smells like a racket. First Aldo assures me that the repairman can do the job; then the repairman comes and if he had had good directions he would have charged me $65 to tell me he can't help me.

Get this: in spending around two hours with Time Warner and Sears the last three days, the final word, from both of them was "we can't fix your proglem". I wrestled with their customer service on three different days and came up completely empty. Well, Aldo did say he was sorry.

If my experiences with these off-shore customer service folks is common only a third of a time, I cannot help but think it will hurt the reputation of the companies using them in order to cut costs. Some companies have already returned their call centers to the United States. Even with higher labor costs, in the long run, local help is cheaper that foreign bungling.

And now, I sit here waiting for the Dish TV man to show up. I have a scheduled appointment with him: sometime betwen 8 am and noon today. He has six more minutes to make it on time.

Service Flag

2007-11-07T08:56:00.000-05:00

.
I did not know what a "service flag" was until a friend in my church brought me one to hang in my window. At the time my son was in Iraq. I understand it is tradition, going back how far I do not know, to place this flag in your front window if you have a person serving in the military in harm's way. So I proudly placed the flag in my window. Here is what it looked like while he was overseas.

More importantly is my son for which it stands. Todd Andrew Archer is a Sergeant First Class, having been in the army for 17 years. Initially he was a "tanker" in the Armored Cavalry, a crew member in our M1A2 Abrams Main Battlestation tanks. He injured his ankles three or four years ago and was transferred to a transportation batallion.

"I wish I were in my tank in Baghdad", he said. I thanked God he worked behind a computer screen routing convoys while in Iraq.

Currently he is home from Iraq, located at Fort Bragg, No Carolina. He may go back to Iraq during the coming year. I pray not. But I support him whereever he goes.

Here is a picture of my son in his dress outfit.

Isn't he splendid! I am one of those persons who do not support the war; but who definitely support and love my son. Some can't understand that. They bother me less and less.

Now here is a poem my daughter came across. It is what sparked this entry onto my blog.

SERVICE FLAGS
by William Hartley Holcomb
1918

The sordid roll of business wheels
Grind on the dirty streets,
Unmindful of our drafted sons
Out on the deep, in fleets;

Old gay Broadway keeps up its pace
From dark-time until light,
Unthinking of the soldier boys
Who hold the trench at night.

The careless come, the reckless go
Unhallowed on their way,
Unheeding of the wounded ones
Or Death s toll of each day;

But, down the street at a doorway drear,
There hangs a strip of red,
With its center white, and one blue star
Like azure from overhead;

And further down is another strip
With two stars shining clear,
While a third with three on its white field
Hangs in a window near;

And we know that out of the world of
men,
The wise and thoughtless gay,
Six strong true men have heard Freedom s
call
And bravely marched away.

And we know three homes on that same
street
Where happiness used to be,
Now places keep for three vacant chairs,
Here one, there two, there three;

And we know three homes where anxious
fear
Await the coming morn,
When street boys call out the battle news
Night s wireless wings have borne.

Then doff your hat to the Service Flags,
You man of careless mien
A nobler scroll on Honor s Roll
This world has never seen;

For first in duty, first in war,
Their valor will not cease,
And when they come marching home
again,
They will be the first in Peace.

Four Movies

2007-10-27T18:20:00.000-04:00

.
In the last month, Judee and I have seen four movies:

1. In the Valley of Elah-- Tommy Lee Jones is the father of
a soldier back from Iraq who appears to have been killed
mysteriously. Jones, a small-town law officer, spends the movie figuring out what happened to his son. A father's desire to uncover his son's death keeps Jones walking through a puzzling scenario. A gift the son had sent his Dad from Iraq plays a large role in making a statement about the state of our nation.

2. Michael Clayton --George Clooney is a corporate "fix it" man who takes care of problems that beset large corporations.

3. Gone Baby Gone-- Morgan Freeman, Casey Affleck, Ann Ryan. A baby is kidnapped and the story revolves around efforts to recover her.

4. Rendition --Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, Alan Arkin, Meryl Streep. An international traveler from Chicago, suspected of being a terrorist, is taken into custody and sent to a secret location to be tortured.

****Best of the Lot: ****

Rendition **** Excellent story, good screenplay, good acting, suspense, good subplots, well cast. Meryl Streep always stands out.
Gyllenhaal was very good. Allen Arkin convinced me he was a US Senator. This movie held my attention from beginning to end. A whole new understanding of "the United States does not use terror to gain intelligence" emerges. The 'host country" for interro-gations is not identified for security reasons.

Valley of Elah ***.5 --I admit I really enjoy Tommy Lee Jones (native of San Antonio, I might add). This movie is a good murder mystery, and a commentary along the way on the Iraqi war. The ending really grabbed me.
Gone Baby--** Ben Affleck has some things to learn yet as a director. His brother Casey A did a good job. I may have slept through part of this one.
Michael Clayton-- I saw this movie only two weeks ago, yet I cannot remember anything significant about it. Thus, my impression is not too high; however, after hearing from some friends who rate this show high, and watching several trailers, I must admit I was asleep, or some worse neurological event took place. I am sure that if I had plugged into the story (featuring the behavior of a manic-dperessive) I would have been intrigued. I have decided not to rate this movie at all. It seems I must be careful not to go to the movies during naptime.
Hope A'Waiting: Two movies coming in November that look interesting:
Lions for Lambs--A Robert Redford movie which focuses on the
Iraqi war. Tom Cruise is a senator who appears to be pro-war; Redford is a college professor; and Meryl Streep is a writer.
No Country for Old Men--A Tommy Lee Jones movie (need I say more?). Set in modern day West Texas. Don't know much more except Jones is a lawman.

I FOUND IT!

2007-10-26T17:28:00.000-04:00

.
I found my book for which I have been looking ever since our last move. In June of 06 we moved to San Antonio and ever since I have been looking for my copy of The Five Gospels, the Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus, 1993, the product of the Jesus Seminar. Today, while rearranging our garage I found it!

That discovery was especially keen to me because I am currently teaching a class at church called "Saving Jesus from the Radical Right (and the Extreme Secular Left)" and this book will be helpful to share with the class.

JESUS' WORDS. In case you don't know, this book is the product of a group of bibical scholars (some 65 of them; they are known as the "Jesus Seminar") who have analysed the words purportedly said by Jesus in the more popular translations and made determinations as to the probability that the historical Jesus said those words.

It is the contention of most of the scholars of this project that the traditional gospels contain layers of material, some of it is historical, more of it is an expression of the perspectives of the early Christian community.

Marcus Borg says it this way: the Bible is the product of two historical communities, ancient Israel and the early Christian movement.. As such it is a human product, not a divine product. It tells us of the experiences and understandings of those communities. It is not the "Word of God" but is the early communities' words about their response to God--the laws they developed, thier eithical teachings, their prayers, their hopes and dreams. [To read more of Marcus Borg's work, go to the Blog Archive 2007, May --- "Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time".]

What we have then, in all the gospels, are some words which probably are the actual words of Jesus, and actual events. But we also have understandings of who Jesus was, influenced by the years of veneration and worship---and the experiences the community had with the risen Christ (or Christ's Spirit, or Spirit).

The Jesus Seminar scholars have developed a unique way of grading the purported "words of Jesus" to determine if the words are authentically Jesus', or if they have come from the traditional community. In the book one finds four distinctions: (1) Jesus undoubtedly said this or something very like it. (2) Jesus probably said something like this. (3) Jesus did not say this, but the idea is close to his thinking. (4) Jesus did not say this. It represents the perspective of a later tradition.

The book is a weighty tome, giving the SV translation for the gospels (including Thomas) as well as detailed commentary supporting their decision re the authenticity of the traditional words.

SCHOLAR'S VERSION (SV). One of the reasons this translation began was due to the discovery of the Gospel of Thomas. Earlier translations were considered to be "wooden" and "tentative". This translation attempts to render into contemprary English the colloquialisms and aphorisms of the Greek texts. Here is an example of the contrast in the translations of one passage:

But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrits! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves and when others are going in, you stop them.

This translation is from the New Revised Standard Version, Matthew 23.13. Compare it to the Scholar's Version:

You scholars and Pharisees, you imposters! Damn you! You slam the door of Heaven's domain in people's faces. You yourselves don't enter, and you block the way of those trying to enter.

"Woe" is not a part of the average American's working vocabulary. If a person wants to curse someone, they don't say "Woe unto you!" but are more likely to say "Damn you!".

The New Revised Standard Translation, like many other modern translations, retains the "style" of speech of the King James Version; or, attempts to put Engish words in the same order as the Greek source. This practice leads to a style not compatible with contemporary usage.

Another very important factor in the production of the Scholar's Version is that it is "free of ecclesiastical and religious control, unlike other major translations into English, including the King James Version and its descendants (Protestant), the Douay-Rheims Version and its progeny (Catholic) , and the New International Version (Evangelical)." The SV is not bound by the dictates of church councils (it has not denominational axes to grind, nor "orthodox" doctrines to defend). Its contents and organization vary from the more traditional versions.

ET CETERA. The book (553 pp) is full of essays on topics like: (1) The Seven Pillars of Scholastic Wisdom, (2) The Jesus of History and the Christ of Faith, (3) The Gospels in Greek, (4) A Map of Gospel Relationships, (5) Rules of Written Evidence, (6) Who Wrote the Gospels, (7) The Rules of Oral Evidence, (8) The Jesus Seminar at Work (analytical methods).

Robert W. Funk, Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar. THE FIVE GOSPELS, The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1993.

Peaceful Melancholy

2007-10-24T08:49:00.000-04:00

'
My young athletic doctor was an All-State basketball player for the Boerne Greyhounds some thirty years ago. He gets up at 5:00 am three times a week to play basketball in our high school gymnasium. It is not a good thing to have a former all-state athlete for your physician. His parameters of possibility expand far beyond the normal boundaries of hope.

"Follow my advice and you will die a quick, easy death. Keep going as you are and your death will be slow and painful."

What he wants me to do is slow and painful: run, walk, ride a bicycle, grab the flirtatious hand of the vixen of health. As opposed to sinking into the fraternal order of sofa spuds ("couch potatos" to you not so hip) and enjoying another round of decadent goo and fizz.

So the option is (1) slow and relaxed interminables as a presage to slow and painful death. Or (2) a quick, easy death preceded by pain and deprivation.

It's just a major league quandry framed in a trick question. When I was five years old, my mother presented a minor league dilemma with its own deceiving choice: "Do you want to wear this red shirt, or the blue shirt?" The question offers no permanent choice at all, except to settle mother's anxiety (I might miss the school bus if she doesn't get a shirt on me.) So I chose the red shirt, but tomorrow the blue one was still there.

All through our lives we struggle with the red/blue issue, ignoring the suppressed desire to not wear a shirt at all.

Not to die at all.

We ignore death to the point that it always comes as an unexpected guest. It is the enemy, the darkness against which even the most valiant light dims. The poet laureate of our youth schooled us:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

I think not. Rage just doesn't fit the end of the living of these days. Sometime in the next year, ten years, twenty or even thirty, I will die. The thought does not scare me. I have given up control many times in times when the force was undefeatable. ("Just close your eyes and count backwards from 100": "100, 99, 98, 97 . . .") Rage, no.

Give me gentle submission when I bow. Give me a completeful release of the last energy flow. Concern is small for whatever lies beyond that last revival attempt by the caregivers. Let me go gentle into that good night.

And, I sleep best with no night shirt.

Random Expulsions

2007-10-23T14:01:00.000-04:00

.
A drive has taken me here, pushed me here, forced me to sit at the keyboard. Yet, I know not why, nor what to say.

I do not think George W is an evil person, but I may be wrong. What compulsion could be driving the man into a position of attacking another country (Iran) at a time when we can barely sustain our forces in Iraq? There is no way we can sustain an extensive ground war in Afganistan, Iraq and Iran at the same time. No way short of a military draft. Yet he talks as if that is his focus. Evil, no, but possibly tragically possessed with some obsession of manifest destiny.

My early favorite Democrat, Obama, seems to lack the spine to get mean enough to defeat Hillary. Hillary has too many loose ends and too many tight stretches to hold it together. This tragic couple (Hillary & Bill) will be unable to avoid a major melt-down before the election (Nov 08). Watch her start to fade by mid-January.

Edwards will fade, as his money dries up. Richardson can't stop talking about his experiences (and we are tired of listening). So that leaves Joe Biden, another early favorite of mine. The most articulate candidate in the field, he may have learned to measure his words.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Interesting to me, at least, but not the reason I sat here this day.

I am headed to retirement next June (08). The change looks very intriguing to me. Mostly, I hope to have time to research and write: stuff about theology, mental illness, to re-read all of Kurt Vonnegutt's books. To teach some progressive theology classes. To work 20 hours a week in some church, probably in a visiting pastor role. To be able to find a small circle of friends with whom I'll need not maintain a "pastoral" role. To get my blood sugar under control. To help my grandson, grand daughter grow up. To develop a web site that will have lasting value. To get my appetites under control: financial and food.

Well, maybe one of two of those things, before I peek into eternity.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Erik Erikson's Eighth Stage of Man involves the struggle between despair and intergrity. I know that will be a major field of turmoil for me. Despair could mean falling into the easy chair with the latest book of Sudoku puzzles and refusing to come out. Or, it could be a fanatical dive into some messianic effort to set the world right. May I be saved from any resolution; saved for a wholeness that comes from equal parts of ying and yang.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Where does the passion of life surface? Have I really developed gills so that the passion for fresh air has been squashed? Little by little, unnoticeably, have I pushed my own thoughts and feelings back into the folds of a dark blanket, for the sake of promoting the growth of parishioner's spiritual weeds? Have I listened with an ear concerned for their tranquility rather than growth? Have I worried more about being controversial, than instructive?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Somehow this diatribe has not brought satisfaction, for there is an incompleteness to it all these days. Standing on the precipice, looking down, then up, I feel certain that the allure of what's-happening-tomorrow will keep me in the race. Hardball, Countdown, Jon Stewart, even Bill Maher will keep me looking around the corner; hoping that George W hasn't blown up the world, or provoked some else into doing it. Pity the man; fear what he might do.

Conrad

Liberals more tolerant?

2007-09-25T13:44:00.000-04:00

.
Is it true that liberals are more tolerant of conservatives than vice versa? If so why is this the case? Your comments please.

Tripping DC

2007-09-06T11:18:00.000-04:00

The last week of August, Judee (my wife) and I spent in Washington DC. It was an extremely inspiring and uplifting venture---of course we did not see any politicians.

But we did get to sit in the gallery of the House of Representatives, and imagine Sam Rayburn dispensing power. We humbly climbed the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and read the engraved words of the Gettysburg address: of the peple, by the people, for the people ....

We slowly walked the trail of the Vietnam Memorial. It is a difficult thing to pause and read the names of those who would be my age today, if only .... We passed hundeds of geese enjoying the waters of the reflecting ponds and scrounging for food from the grass. They will be flying south in a few months I suppose.

We reached the magnificent World War II Memorial with its dual tribute to the Pacific and European theaters. And finally the spire of the Washington Monument, reaching some 55 stories up into the sky, centering the city.

Arlington Cemetary was next. Our shuttle moved slowly through what appeared to be millions and millions of white crosses. Hushedly we walked toward a beautiful green slope of grass. At the top of that hill was Arlington House, one-time home of Robert E Lee. Turning back to the east you could see the Lincoln Memorial to your left, the Washington Monument straight ahead, and beyond it the beautiful dome of the capitol building. Two weeks before he died, John Kennedy stood on that slope and said it was so beautify that he could spend eternity there. His grave with the eternal flame now lies at the foot of that slope.

Granite tablets hold some of the words from his 1961 inaugural speech.

Now the trumpet summons us again--not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need--not as a call to battle, though embattled we are-- but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation"--a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Having just lived a few, too brief moments with Lincoln, these words invoked such a longing that we could have leaders today who could dream such dreams and heal such hurts.

And we watched in silence the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers in Arlington. Every thirty minutes, 24/7, all kinds of weather that ritual is repeated.

At the capitol building our tour guide explained the interior of the dome, tooks us downs stairs to a room filled with statues donated by each state (Sam Houston represesnted Texas). And, gave us passes to the gallery of the House of Representives (Congress was not in session).

On to the museums: the Air & Space Museum held the Spirit of St. Louis, rockets, space station mockups, the lunar rover, planes from WWI and all the others, even a large model of the Star Ship Enterprise. We saw a 3D Imax movie on the building of the space station; and a planetarium presentation on the universe that was outstanding.

And because the History museum was undergoing renovation, some of the exhibits had been moved to the Air & Space: Dorothy's red shoes from Wizard of Oz, Lincoln's top hat, Mister Rogers' sweater, rocks from the moon, etc.

The Indian Museums was very thorough and informative, even inspiring at times.

We did not get to see the Jefferson Memorial nor the White House (a visitors center is available, the actual White House was not).

Great praises for the DC Metro system. For twenty dollars my young wife bought a ticket that allowed her to travel all over DC all week. My ticket cost $10 (Senior Citizen) and lasted until Thursday. Our hotel (Radisson, Crystal City) was about two blocks away from the Metro Station and we travelled by rail all over DC and Arlington. Never rented a car. But, they do rent cars (Zip Cars) for $7.75 an hour, and I wish I had rented one to go to the Jefferson Memorial. We loved riding the rails and find it hard to understand why Texas is pushing toll roads instead of the rails.

It was a great week.

Sexual Integrity

2007-08-19T18:26:00.000-04:00

Yesterday (Saturday, August 18) I returned to San Antonio from a trip to Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. A group of eight from our church attended the Celebrate Recovery (CR) national Summit 2007. Over 3,500 persons were there.

We are in our third year of CR at our church. It is a 12-step program designed to serve folks with all sorts of hurts, habits and hangups. Sure, CR deals with addictions to alcohol and drugs; but, it is so much more than that. Any kind of hurt a person might be carrying inside, any kind of destructive habit, any relationship-destroying hangup is fair game.

During this Summit, I became aware of a new area that needs to be addressed in our churches: sexual immorality. I attended a group of over 200 men who admitted to be struggling with sexual addictions---things like lust, pornography, sexual infidelty, adultery, etc. I heard confessions of how sexual obsessions had been extremely destructive to lives, marriages, jobs and careers.

I also heard men say they have been "sober" or "clean" from impurities for days, months, even years. I heard men proclaiming a hunger for holiness. Men whose lives had been restored.

I was directed to a book: Every Man's Battle by Steven Arterburn, Ph.D. He is a psychologist whose book has been used as a study guide for those seeking freedom from sexual obsessions.

A study will be proposed to our Adult Ministries and Council on Ministry. Hopefully a study called "Sexual Integrity" can be offered through our church. And, after the eight-week course, a "maintenance share group", and 12-step program hopefully will be started at Celebrate Recovery.

We live in an age where sexually-stimulating imagery and language is presented to us many times a day: in entertainment media, print media, advertisements, in daily conversations, in our choices of clothing. Pornography, in whatever form it is presented tends to restrict the dimensions of our relationships. We as a people have a real need to learn to control and appropriately use the sexual aspects of our life.

I am aware that Celebrate Recovery, and much of the sexual integrity literature that is out there may take a reactionary, rigid, puritanical position on sex. I don't belong in that camp. But, I do believe that sexual addiction (especially lust, pornogoraphy and adultery) can be very destructive to the most precious relationships we share.

As I learn more, I will write more.

We (Pridefully) Are Number One!

2007-07-25T08:48:00.000-04:00

.
This fall at some football game it is inevitable you will see zealous students waving their index finger in the air and proclaiming "We're Number One" over and over. And it will be just as certain that they are not. They may have a good won-loss record, perhaps 7-3, but more than likely they will be second or third in their conference, certainly not number one in the nation.

Rampant, exuberant pride will blind the student body to its losses and propel their unfounded claim. We understand all this and take it with a grain of salt. Kids love their school, want to think of it as great, and, allow some of the "greatness" to filter down on themselves.

But it is harder to understand when adults make such a claim for themselves, when the evidence so clearly points elsewhere.

Witness: Pope Benedict XVI a couple of weeks ago declared that the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) was the only true church.
.
Other churches havc elements of holiness, the Pope said, but are defective.

Oh my, oh my! This pronouncement, echoing such claims of a bygone day, came during the very same week when the Los Angeles diocese of the RCC announced it was going to pay $660 million to persons who claimed to be sexual abuse victims of church priests.

Add to that the millions and millions other archbishops have coughed over to those offended by their priests and you have a "defect" larger that a billion dollars, and -- even worse -- thousands and thousands of lives blighted. The only true church? We're number one indeed!

Weekly a small group of men meet in our church. Recently one person noted that pride was one of the deadly sins. Quite a discussion ensued, with such statements as "I'm proud to be an American." and "I take pride in my work." And those meanings of "pride" do abound in our popular usage.

But pride's first meaning in your dictionary (look it up) is "overhigh opinion of oneself, exaggerated self-esteem and conceit". It is this kind of "blowing oneself up" that leads us humans to think we are better than everyone else.

When I was growing up in West Texas there was a church there which claimed it was the only true church. All other churches (including the RCC) were false churches because they had practices which were not found in the New Testament (e.g., using pianos in worship, calling their building a "church", naming their churches after saints, etc.).

Many other churches or religious bodies have asserted their exclusive righteousness, their special standing before God. Ever hear the phrase "chosen race" or "chosen people"? In the Christian church we struggle with the early church's quote of Jesus: "No one comes to the Father except through me." And the Islamic and Jewish faiths have adherents who make a similar claim, "we are the only way to salvation".

It is a childish arrogance to proclaim oneself or one's group as the one group or people on all the earth whom God loves more than others.

Years ago I worked as a caseworker on a psychiatric unit at a state hospital. It was not unusual for us to admit persons with many different delusions. E.g., unwed mothers often claimed to be the virgin Mary. Once we had two different patients, both claiming to be Jesus Christ. Even to them it was obvious that there could not be two of them. When confronted with that contradiction, one of them replied, "Well, I am the real Jesus, he is a fake." And, of course the other patient said the same thing.

Whenever we are led to claim that we are special, while others are ordindary, chances are our claim is based on prideful delusion.

Why do we do this? Do we not all want to be special? Do we not all want to be important? In the Christian Scripture the mother of James and John wanted to insure a seat of importance for her sons in heaven. As disciples of Jesus, they were already important to Jesus, but their mother wanted them to sit in places of honor (Matthew 20.21). She wanted her sons to be number one (and number two, I suppose).

The antidote to this kind of thinking is humility---the opposite of pride. I have often wondered about the relationship between the word "humility" and "humus". The latter is a rich and fertile dirt, but still, only dirt. And, in the Jewish story of creation, God made man out of dirt. To me this suggests that our true satisfaction in life is rooted in the knowledge that we come from "dirt" and to "dirt" we will return.

In a "first-shall-be-last" kingdom, claiming we are number one almost certainly assures that we are not.

Save Me from the Gripers

2007-07-04T17:06:00.000-04:00

I know a religious lady who claims to be a Christian who publisihes a gripe about every five minutes of her waking moments. Mostly she gripes about the people around her; and, I am convinced she must gripe about me once I am out of her sight.

We have a lot of "cultural Christians", many, many such, who religiously perform "Christian" rites (associated with the church) but whose life can hardly be distinguished from a non-Christian when they are away from church functions. They even gripe about the preacher, the selected hymns, the choir, the ushers, the temperature in the sanctuary, the other people who come to functions. And, they fail to see the selfish toxin they spread and multiply in themselves. It is difficult to be around them for long.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A story is told about a man who wanted to be a monk in a monastery, so he took the vows and began his novitiate.

"For the first year, you must work daily in the garden, and keep silent."

So he did his daily work without a word. At the end of that time, the Abbot said he could speak two words.

"Hard Bed", said the novice.

He was chastised and told he had to work another year in silence. At the end of that time, he once again was give the opportunity to say two words.

"Bad Food", he replied.

This time he was told he must work two years in silence, in the garden, the kitchen and mopping floors. At the end of that time he was brought before the Abbot again and given two words.

"I quit.", he spoke.

"Well, it's just as well," said the Abbot. "You have done nothing but gripe ever since you have been here.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I think griping is a very aggressive way, a very negative aggressive way of walking through life. It is possible the griper is not consciously aware of their constant harangue. A griper may be like the preacher who says, "Dear God," fifteen times when he utters a pastoral prayer. [That's the religious version of the secular person who says, "you know" over and over in conversation.] The griper probably does not know how bitter and negative they sound. And they may not even be aware of their words.

But others are. And others are aware that the griper makes a choice not to be thankful for life. The griper plays out his/her life from a cess pool of daily pain and rotting relationships. He does not trust the rule of thanksgiving. Nor is the call to "come into the presence of the Lord with thanksgiving" answered in their life.

David Scholer is a very popular New Testament professor at Fuller Theological Seminary. He was diagnosed with colorectal cancer five years ago. It has now spread to both lungs, and he has asthma, diabetes and arthritis. Students say that his most important lesson is the importance of living with ambiguity; and, to ponder Paul's 1st Thessalonians statement, "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances."

When you give thanks to God for all things in your life, daily, one-by-one, the good things and the bad things, it absolutely transforms your life. You become a joy and a blessing to those you meet.

Second Life: A Virtual World of Wonder

2007-06-30T22:15:00.000-04:00

For the past week I have been exploring Second Life, an internet based world which provides a wide-range of "imaginary/real" experiences. In this "world" I have adopted the name of Hosea Beaumont, and am aspiring to be a Protestant Benedictine Monk, living at the Felix Meritas monastery in the Lill Burn Valley.

Reportedly over seven million persons are members of this cyber world; however only around 30-40,000 seem to be signed on at any one time. The cost is not too high if you are frugal. I bought L$1,000 (Linden dollars--"play" money named after the founders of Second Life, the Lindens) for $4.02 and have spent around 400 so far. Two hundred for a week's rent of a cell in the Cloister at the monastery and other expenses along the way (L$95 for a Benedictine robe).

Each person has an avatar (a representative humanoid, well some do not look like a human) which you get to design yourself with some fairly sophisticated tools. and you can make or buy clothing.

I must admit there are an unusual number of sexy women running around, since there are generous limits as the the size of various body parts you can choose. And much of the clothing is probably what most earth-based creatures wish they could wear (on bodies they wish were really theirs).

So you have to put up with sex and gambling as two primary modes of behavior; however, there is plenty of room to discuss redemption and forgiveness in this world.

Yesterday I discussed God and agnosticism with a young psychological student from Toulouse, France (yes he really was from France---this thing is a world-wide community). Today I debated with a Greek Orthodox follower who was proclaiming his church was right and all others were wrong. I have an acquaintance with a sister here at the monastery who in RL (real life) is a medical student in Munich. I talked with a fellow from Spain and a lady from California yesterday.

Most of the time I just sit in the courtyard and welcome folks who "drop in" to visit the monastery. Some come intending to discuss religious matters. Other times I "transport" to other locations, shopping malls, churches, parks, a recreational midnight walk, even a casino, w here I won L$60 on my third try and immediately quit. Today I took an hour class on how to write behavioral scripts for my avatar.

I hope to build a United Methodist Church (tho I probably won't call it that), preach on Sundays, teach some classes, have a Bible Study or two, counsel whenever, and develop a circuit like Wesley. Small groups are next, on different levels of discourse and accountability. It takes time to develop a group I suspect, but it will really be fun and worthwhile.

So, if you wish to come and see what this is all about, click on this address: http://www.secondlife.com/ and come aboard. If you spend any time there, come on over to the Felix Meritas monastery and say high. I usually spend a little time there in the late afternoons and evenings (beats TV). Oh yes, if you decide to become a Premium Member, somehow I will get L$2,000 as a reward if you mention my name Whatever I get will go toward building a church.

[Late news: in the Sunday, July 1, edition of the San Antonio Express-News there is a story on Virtual Worlds. See it at:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/stories/MYSA070107.1R.VirtualWorlds.2a76c32.html
]

Blessings,
Hosea Beaumont,
aka Conrad

UPDATE: ABOUT THREE WEEKS AGO (EARLY OCTOBER) I BURIED MY AVATAR OUTSIDE THE FELIX MERITAS MONASTERY WALLS (DID'NT KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO WITH HIM.) I LEFT SECOND LIFE IN FAVOR OF FIRST LIFE. I FOUND NOT MUCH TO DO THERE EXCEPT TALK, DONATE MONEY TO SOMEONE ELSE AND RIDE A TOY TRAIN. CAN DO THAT BETTER IN FIRST LIFE. ADIEU.

Note to a New Reader

2007-06-16T12:47:00.000-04:00

.
PLEASE READ THIS NOTE BEFORE OTHERS.

One of the most difficult things for some Christians to do is to accept the proposition that two different persons can have different understandings of the Christian journey and yet can both be right, or righteous.

RELATIVE TRUTH

God's truth, while absolute for God, is relative to each of us.

Consider for a moment that God has alwasy related to different people differently. From Adam and Eve to Abraham and Sarah, from Moses and Zippporah to David and Bathsheba, and on and on in the biblical story. God reveals himself differently at different times in different ways. It would be futile for Moses to try to convince David that a "burning bush" was the primary way God communicates.

Consider a lighthouse in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. A ship (e.g. ship # 4 below) sends out a distress call. It is lost and needs direction to the safety of the lighthouse.

Suppose the other ships, in an effort to help, signalled ship #4 to take their direction to safety. Ship #1 would say, "Go Southeast". Ship #2, "Go Northeast". Ship #3, "Go Southwest".

Ship#4 would be hopelessly lost if it tried to go in the same direction as another ship. The moral: Each person must follow their unique pathway to a full transforming relationship with God. To imitate what others advise (no matter how "right" they are) will not bring safety or lasting satisfaction.

PARTIAL UNDERSTANDING

Scripture tells us: Now we see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God knows me now. 1 Cor 13.12

Some persons have a need to have an absolute authority in their life. This is especially true when we are younger, or when we live in a universe filled with confusion, ambiguity and fear and we are not coping very well. There is a tendency to "whittle God down to size", or to imagine that he exists only to meet our particular needs.

A person getting ready to travel by car across the desert needs to notice that their gas tank is only 1/4 full and be responsible for it. To run out of gas some 100 miles into the journey and then ask God for more gas is totally irresponsible behavior. God does not exist just to bail us out of quandries of our own making.

When we have a "whittled down God" we have falsely expanded our partial knowledge of him to a "complete understanding". We think our understanding of God is the same as his mysterious reality. This process leads to idolatry. We worship our partial understanding as if it were the same as the unlimited, all-powerful, mysterious God.
Anytime we take the infinite and make if finite, that is idolatry.

A Sufi parable tells the story of how different blind persons examined an elephant and tried to come up with a description. One, holding onto the trunk, said, "It seems to be like a large snake." Another, stretching his arms around one of the elephant's legs said, "It appears to be like a large tree." The one with the tail in his hands described it as a "whip".

While the person holding its ears, argued for large thick leaves on a tree. All of the ones involved were "right" in their partial understanding of the elephant, but only by putting all their impressions togeother could they come to a fuller understanding of "elephant".

The moral: Each of bring to the table our own "partial" understanding of God. Respectful dialogue can yield deeper and more complete understanding for all. But, when we refuse to be open-minded to other's witness, we build an impenetrable wall around our own self-authenticated god.

PROGRESSIVE/EVANGELICAL THEOLOGY

In seminary and through my reading these last thirty years, I have learned many things which have changed my Christian stance. There are things I know now, which prohibit me from "believing" some things I once believed. But on the other hand, there are things I have retained from my early Sunday School upbringing which help form the core of my Christian experience.

I would never expect you to put on my perspective for that would be a synthetic coat of faith for you. Neither am I willing to wear your "coat of faith" for that would not be viable for me. But that does not mean that your current faith stance is invalid or wrong. On the contrary, what you currently believe, live and the way you relate to God reflect your interaction with the faith community and with God up to this point in your life. It is vital that you affirm it, while at the same time, stay in dialogue with others in the broader community of faith.

Where your understanding has rough edges, explore and grow. Where it is satisfying and supporting, deepen it and be thankful. One persons faith position is not better than another's, so long as they are both involved in a transforming relationship with God and are engaged in dialogue with the larger Christian community.

RESPECT.

Finally, let us love one another. Let us not be threatened by differences. Let us not feel compelled to force everyone to believe the way we do. In love, let us search for the truth of life, and let us be thankful in all we do.

News Traces

2007-06-14T07:23:00.000-04:00

.
Baptists urge defeat of hate-crimes bill

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), meeting in San Antonio (June 13) passed a resolution asking the "Senate and President Bush to prevent hate-crimes from being prosecutable, saying it would add an extra layer of protection for homosexuality, which they say the Bible denounces". The convention urged President Bush to veto the bill if it passes legislative muster.

The reasoning behind this position is that Baptists have been arrested for "inciting hatred" when openly displaying Bible verses pertaining to homosexuality.

The convention of 8,600 messengers (the smallest annual meeting in thirty years) also applauded a message from President Bush, via satellite, in which he praised the charitable work of the Baptists.

The official stance of the SBC on same-sex relations is that "the Bible teaches that homosexuality is a sin" but that all Americans "are urged to treat all gays and lesbians with civility and compassion while sharing the Gospel with them". From the San Antonio Express-News, June 14, 2007

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

From the San Antonio Express-News, June 2, 2007:
----------
A $27 million Creation Museum has opened in Petersburg, Kentucky, promoting a literal Biblical view of creation. The museum claims the earth is only 6,000 years old, that dinosours lived alongside humans, and that the universe was created in six, 24-hour days. Adam and Eve are depicted as white caucasian creatures with their nudity hidden behind a large boulder.
----------
A United Methodist bishop has appointed Drew Phoenix to a pastorate in Maryland. Last year the same pastor was appointed to the same charge under the name of Ann Gordan. Clergy in Baltimore have appealed to the denomination's Judicial Council regarding the transgendered appointment.
----------
Rural Church Struggle. About 52 percent of American churches are in rural areas. That figure repersents around 177,000 congregations. Average attendance is estimated to be twenty.

Benedictine Rule for 21st Century

2007-06-11T08:40:00.000-04:00

A month ago, at a conference in Montgomery, Alabama, Bishop Goodpasture of Mississipi spoke of the impact living the Benedictine Rule had on his life. Then this past week, while attending a conference in Corpus Christi, I was led to to a small, slender book entitled Always We Begin Again: The Benedictine Way of Living. Written by John McQuiston II, a Memphis attorney, the book is a "translation" of the Sixth Century Benedictine Rule into our contemporary context. It appears to offer promise for one seeking to bring order to a chaotic life. Some excerpts:

"The first rule is simply this:

live this life
and do whatever is done,
in a spirit of Thanksgiving.

Abandon attempts to achieve security,
they are futile,

give up the search for wealth,
it is demeaning,

quit the search for salvation,
it is selfish,

and come to comfortable rest
in the certainty that those who
participate in this life
with an attitude of Thanksgiving
will receive its full promise."
p. 17-18

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"... we as finite creatures, can perceive only what we are capable of perceiving. Therefore each person must be dealt with in accordance with his or her unique disposition and capacities." p. 30

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Remember the great value of silence.
Each day there must be time for silence,
even in our prayers and meditation.
There must be time within which we
neither speak nor listen,
but simply are.

... Too much talk is a sign of self-centeredness
and insecurity." p. 43-44

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Here is the Twelve Stages of Humility, in abbreviated form:

"The first stage of humility
is to keep the sacred nature of consciousness
... always alive within us.

The second stage of humility
is to distrust our own will.

The third stage of humility
is to accept our limitations....

The fourth stage of humility
is to be patient and to maintain
a quiet mind.

The fifth stage of humility
is not to conceal our faults.

The sixth stage of humility is to be content
with the work we are given to do.

The seventh stage of humility is to
understand how inconsequential we are.

The eighth stage of humility is to act
in accordance with the plan of our
true guides.

The ninth stage of humility is to
refrain from judgement (and to offer
advice only when it is requested).

The tenth stage of humility is to
refrain from taking pleasure
in other's losses.

The eleventh stage of humility is to
speak gently and briefly.

The twelth stage of humility is to
maintain humble thoughts and demeanor."
pp.47-52.

The book is filled with wisdom for living a full life. Sacrifice of our heavy dependance on the material world is called for. The challenge is to give up our efforts to save our lives and to lose them in the service of others. --ca

Readings Traces

2007-05-29T19:23:00.000-04:00

A new feature: from time to time excerpts from various sources will be posted here, along with my comments. --ca

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

BONES OF CONTENTION:

In March 2007 a show on the Discovery Channel, The Lost Tomb of Jesus, was presented. It claimed that a tomb containing the bones of Jesus, Mary and Joseph had been found. Most scholars were very dubious about the claims of those responsible for the show. However, the prospect of finding Jesus' bones raised some interesting questions.

Early Christians claimed that the empty tomb argued for a physical resurrection; and, if physical remains were discovered, some branches of Christianity would be left scrambling for an explanation. But Paul claimed that the resurrection body was a spiritual entity (1 Cor 15.44), not a physical one. Certainly Jesus' resurrection body was unusual. At one point he walks through walls (John 21.19ff). But, the question remains, what difference would it make of our understanding of Jesus--his death and resurrection if physical remains were found. Christian Century, March 20, 2007 p. 5.

This is all hypothetical of course, but the question does not bother me at all. The overwhelming presence of the risen Christ is a primary basis of my post-resurrection understanding of Jesus. This presence is a spiritual presence, not a physical one (at least that's as far as my experience and reason will carry me). If authentic bones were found, I would be interested in solving the mystery of how they got to where they were discovered. But, it would have little impact upon my relationship with God. --Conrad

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

JESUS OF NAZARETH

A book by this name has just been released. It is written by Pope Benedict 16th. Very intriguing is a review I read (have not read the book, yet) which raises the issue: "how to love and respect what you are being taught to dissect". The pope is speaking to a very relevant concern of Christians today. In the face of biblical criticism and the use of scientific methods to study its origin, authorship, development of theology, etc., how is the modern Christian to develop and maintain "an intimate friendship with Jesus"?

Pope Benedict proposes that we "trust the gospels," read them critically and with love. He asserts that Jesus exploded all existing categories and can be understood "only in the light of the mystery of God." George Weigel, Time Magazine, 5-21-07, p. 49.

I was amazed to find the Pope speaking so openly and positively about biblical criticism. He focuses on the "meaning" of Biblical stories as more important than the results of "over-dissecting" the texts. Reading the Scriptures with love and critical examination show us, as the Pope points out, reality's translucence to God. I have ordered this book. --Conrad

Some Favorite John Wesley Quotations

2007-05-21T16:57:00.000-04:00

John Wesley was one of the greatest Christians ever to live. What you will find here are some things he said or wrote about a variety of topics.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

LOVE. For how far is love, even with many wrong opinions, to be preferred before truth itself without love. We may die without the knowledge of many truths and yet be carried into Abraham's bosom. But if we do without love, what will knowledge avail?

Works (Bic Ed 1.107.

MONEY. Gain all you can without hurting either yourself or your neighbor, in soul or body, by applying hereto with uninterrupted diligence, and with all the understanding God has given you. Save all you can. by cutting off every expense which serves to indulge foolish desire, to gratify either desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye, or the pride of life. Waste nothing, living or dying, on sin or folly, whether for yourselsf or your children. And then, Give all you can, or in other words give all you have to God.

Works (Bic Ed) 2.278f.

[In another work, Wesley amplifies the use of money to include what is needed for one's business or profession and to provide for necessities of you children (which would include college and other sustaining expenses.--ca]

Scripture. I want to know one thing, the way to heaven--how to land safe on that happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach the way; for this very end he came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book!

Works (Bic Ed) 1.105

Field Preaching. George Whitfield persistently urged Wesly to engage in preaching outdoors; but Wesley did not think it proper. Finally, on April 2, 1739, he wrote in his journal: "At four in the afternoon, I submitted to be more vile, and proclaimed in the highways the glad tiding of salvation, speaking from a little eminence in a ground adjoining the city (Bristol), to about three thousand people." Albert Outler believes this experience was as important as the Aldergate experience, for Wesley had finally found his vocation.

Quotation from Journal II (Jackson Ed.), 172-173.

Disagreements. Every wise man, therefore, will allow others the same liberty of thinking which he desires they should allow him; and will no more insist on their embracing theirs. He bears with those who differ from him and only asks him with whom he desires to unite in love that single question, "Is thy heart right, as my heart is with thy heart?"

Albert Outler, John Wesley, 1964, p. 95.

Serenity Prayer

2007-05-21T15:41:00.001-04:00

Perhaps you have never come across the complete Serenity Prayer as written by Reinhold Niebuhr. I had heard the first three verses, but not the complete prayer. Here 'tis:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

God, grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change,

the courage to change the things I can,

and the wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time,

enjoying one moment at a time;

accepting hardship as a pathway to peace;

taking, as Jesus did,

this sinful world as it is,

not as I would have it;

trusting that you will make all things right

if I surrender to your will;

so that I may be reasonably happy in this life

and supremely happy with you forever in the next.

Amen

Eight Principles of Celebrate Recovery

2007-05-19T13:15:00.001-04:00

by Pastor Rick Warren
Saddleback Church

1. Realize that I am not God. I admit I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and that my life is unmanageable.
Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor.

2. Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him and that He has the power to help me recover.
Happy are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

3. Consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ's care and control.
Happy are the meek.

4. Openly examine and confess my faults to myself, to God, and to someone I trust.
Happy are the pure in heart.

5. Voluntarily submit to every change God wants to make in my life and humbly ask him to remove my character defects.
Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires.

6. Evaluate all my relationships. Offer forgiveness to those who have hurt me and make amends for harm I've done to others, except when to do so would harm them or others.
Happy are the merciful. Happy are the peacemakers.

7. Reserve a daily time with God for self-examination, Bible reading and prayer in order to know God and His will for my life and to gain the power to follow His will.
8. Yield myself to God to be used to bring this Good News to others, both by my example and by my words.
Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires.

SERMON: Why "Good Friday"?

2007-05-14T05:40:00.000-04:00

I was reading on the internet a review of a movie earlier this week when I came upon a warning, in bold print. WARNING: SPOILER AHEAD. What that meant was the writer was about to tell me the way the movie came out . So if I didn’t want to know how the story ended, I shouldn’t read any more. Knowing how the story ends, takes away from the suspense and emotion of the movie.

I think the same can be said for the passion story.

I have heard it said that we cannot experience the ecstasy and joy of Easter, unless we experience the pain and despair of the crucifixion. It is an basic part of our human make-up that we try to avoid pain and we seek out pleasure. But it is also true that healing and growth often require pain and sacrifice.

So, tonight, let us listen to the testimony of some of the principle actors in the Good Friday events. We will hear from them as they speak to us on Saturday---the day after the crucifixion, the day before what we call Easter. At that point, they do not know about the Resurrection.

Our first witness is Peter:
“This is the worst day of my life. First, Jesus wanted to wash my feet and I wouldn’t let him. Then I begged him to wash my feet. I had a hard time knowing what was expected of me. Then Jesus asked me to pray with him when we got to the garden. And, of all things, I fell asleep.

The next thing I know the Temple Guard is there, arresting Jesus. I was ready to fight them off, but Jesus said no.Then, early in the morning (or very late last night) I said I didn’t even know him. --- not once, but three times. I was so scared. I wish I’d never been born.And I ran away and hid. Then they killed him on a cross.

WHY DO YOU CALL THIS GOOD FRIDAY?

And hear from his mother, Mary:
I worried so much for him, especially those last days. There had been times in his life when our family felt like he was going too far. We tried to help him, but he wouldn’t listen. When he created that ruckus in the temple, earlier this week,I think that was the last straw.

Today as I watched him dying on that cross, I felt like I was dying too. I wish I could have taken his place. My heart has been crushed. I loved him so, and now he is gone. Any mother knows how I feel.

WHY DO YOU CALL THIS GOOD FRIDAY?

Then there was the Roman soldier:
I never wanted to come to this country. And when I got here I was appalled to be assigned to execution squad. Once, my son was terribly ill, and having heard about Jesus, I asked him to heal my son. And he did. That is why I found it so hard to understand why these people wanted to kill Jesus.

I watched helplessly as my men whipped him. I saw him struggle as he went to Golgotha. It was incredible. Here he was, seemingly despised and hated by everyone, and he asked his Father God to forgive everyone. Then the earth began to move from under my feet, and the sky was covered with a blanket of darkness. I was surprised when I heard my elf say, “Surely this is the Son of God.” And then he died.

WHY DO YOU CALL THIS GOOD FRIDAY?

We call this day "Good Friday" because we see all these events with Resurrection Eyes. But Resurrection eyes can see the risen Lord, only with the cross in the background.

As I heard someone say earlier today, “We know how it all turned out.” So for us the horrible things that happened on that day are more easily accepted. We may want to minimize the suffering of Jesus. We may want to run away from that cross and hide, like his disciples did. But we cannot; not if our relationship with him is to have any real meaning.

Here, on this darkest night of all nights, may we meditate and give thanks for the overwhelming sacrifice of love which Jesus give to us.

We call this day Good Friday, because what Jesus did this day and every day of his life, was to erase the condemnation of sin from each of us.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.