The Deciders

The weather is back to January. The war continues. Life ... and death go on as before.
So now I wonder: what would it look like across the river in DC if we took Molly Ivins' advice? In a piece last week she wrote,

We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell. Think of something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous. Make our troops know we're for them and trying to get them out of there. Hit the streets to protest Bush's proposed surge. If you can, go to the peace march in Washington on January 27. We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, "Stop it, now!"

Marching around the capitol was a start. Those few miles of walking, a first step. But what would it look like if we the people actually decided and insisted that this war is a disaster and must be stopped now? My favorite chant at every march is "this is what democracy looks like!" I always smile as I join that one, and think, "yes, it's amazing and beautiful and incredibly messy and ineffecient." It's certainly no way to run a war. Is it any way to end one?

Martin Lederle-Ensign

Everybody ought to be able to ego-surf and find themselves somewhere in cyber space. Now my adorable 12-year-old can do so. This is him -- dressed like his dad for Halloween. Very scary.

Wake Up to Peace

It may be a bit hard to tell from this photo, but Saturday was the only warm, sunny day in a stretch of cold and dreary ones in DC. Creation itself cries out for peace.
Saturday evening at a small gathering with Michael Lerner and NSP organizers, a woman from Pax Christi noted the mix of hope and despair. She told us that, having come of age in Poland during the days of Solidarity, she could never succumb to hopelessness. She had witnessed the radical transformation of an entire society. However, she also reminded us that deep suffering had inspired that transformation and wondered how, in a society as affluent as contemporary America, any profound transformation could be inspired.
Her comments burn like fire, and remind me that the first step toward transformation of American society is to ring bells loudly enough to wake people of from the slumber of affluence that numbs us to the suffering in our midst.

Peace!

Whatever the news said about today's peace march in DC, they no doubt missed it. Pictures tomorrow, and some thoughts on a just-ended session with Michael Lerner. For today, at the end of a very long day, suffice it to say "my feets is tired, but my soul is rested." Peace, out.

Amnesia

Over the past week or so I've received several reports and dozens of photos from a young adult mission trip to New Orleans. The work of recovery continues slowly, but the photos reminded me of how much remains to be done. In fact, some of them were almost identical to ones I took in Mississippi 16 months ago when the storm was fresh in mind. The only real difference was that folks down there working in January don't look quite as hot as we did!
So, when I watched President Bush's State of the Union address the other night I listened for word of the recovery. If nothing else, surely the president would use the success of the New Orleans Saints to offer a homily about perseverance, or give a nod to the incredible outpouring of volunteer support. But no, not a single word.
The devastation on the Gulf Coast remains as a reminder to the nation of presidential amnesia. Forgetting all kinds of history -- even when it's not even past -- we surge forward and stumble blindly back into the same mistakes.

Wide World of Religion

This is a bit more devotion than I care to see, but I ran across it looking for pictures of Jesus. Just thought you might like to know. Just scanning the web to bring you the endless variety of human religious expression.

Shalom

Don’t let the sun go down on an opportunity to speak out for peace! Join the Network of Spiritual Progressives and a half million or so of your closest friends in a march for a world without war: Saturday, Jan. 27.

Begin that day with a joyous, interfaith worship service at the Church of the Reformation at 212 East Capitol Street, at 9:00 a.m., then walk together to the rally between 3^rd & 7^th Streets at 11:00 a.m. More details at http://www.spiritualprogressives.org/ .

The United for Peace and Justice-sponsored march pushes off at 1:00 p.m. More rally & march details at: http://www.unitedforpeace.org/.

If you’re interested in participating with NSP folks from Northern Virginia, contact me at revdocdee@verizon.net.

Peace

Reimagining Christianity 2.2

The 12th, and final affirmation holds that loving ourselves includes acting on the faith that we are born with a meaning and purpose; a vocation and ministry that serves to strengthen and extend God’s realm of love. This rings close to the essential Reformed belief that God calls us all to lives of service, or, as Mr. Rodgers put it once, "the meaning of life is service." (Mr. Rodgers was arguably the best-known Presbyterian minister of the last 50 years ... "can you say, 'Presbyterian'?") Quaker educator Parker Palmer puts it this way: "Our deepest calling is to grow into our own authentic selfhood, whether or not it conforms to some image of who we ought to be." Truth faith, whether it focuses on the way to God that Christians find in Jesus or on the way to God that Muslims find in the Prophet or on some other way, is always a way to ourselves -- for our deepest calling is to be that which God made us to be. Are you on the way? What gets in the way? Is you job related to your vocation? Should it be? Who are you called to be? Who are you ... and to whom do you belong? Just asking.

Reimagining Christianity 2.1

Affirmation 11 charges us to care for our bodies, and insist on taking time to enjoy the benefits of prayer, reflection, worship and recreation in addition to work. This affirmation takes the fourth commandment seriously and reminds us of the central importance of Sabbath time. In a culture addicted to work and productivity, this may be the most countercultural idea of all. So, how do you find Sabbath time? Are you able to do so in a practiced manner, or is it random? How does such time shape the rest of life? How do you re-create yourself?

The Sabbath commandment is meant for liberation and not to create rule that condemns -- remember that the Sabbath was made for us, not the other way around. And, if that scriptural reminder to tread lightly is not enough, perhaps this is:

Morris and Lenny are strolling home from shul one Saturday morning. Suddenly a cab speeds past, and their friend, Irving, is running frantically behind it, flailing his arms wildly.
"Well," said Lenny, "I never imagined our good friend Irving was a Sabbath violator! Look at him running for that taxi."
"Wait a minute," Morris replied. "Didn't you read that book I lent you, 'The Other Side of the Story', about the command to judge other people favorably? I'll bet we can think of hundreds of excuses for Irving's behavior."
"Yeah, like what?"
"Maybe he's sick and needs to go to the hospital."
"Come on! He was running 60 miles an hour after that cab - he's healthier than Arnold Schwartzeneger."
"Well, maybe his wife's having a baby."
"She had one last week."
"Well, maybe he needs to visit her in the hospital."
"She's home."
"Well, maybe he's running to the hospital to get a doctor."
"He is a doctor."
"Well, maybe he need supplies from the hospital."
"The hospital is a three minute walk in the opposite direction."
"Well, maybe he forgot that it's Shabbos!"
"Of course he knows it's Shabbos. Didn't you see his tie? It was his paisley beige 100% silk Gucci tie from Italy. He never wears it during the week."
"Wow, you're a really observant! I didn't even notice he was wearing a tie."
"How could you not notice? Didn't you see how it was caught on the back fender of the taxi?"

I have a dream ... if anybody cares

I've been pondering the upcoming King Day holiday, and I ran across this picture from the 1963 March on Washington where King delivered "I Have a Dream."
I've been to rallies and demonstrations on the Mall numerous times, and to several events centered at the Lincoln Memorial, so I've got a sense of scale. I've never seen this many people there. Which makes me wonder -- in the midst of an unpopular war -- what would it take in our time to stoke the passions and turn out the people on such a scale as this? If unjust war, unresponsive government, and attacks on civil liberties don't stir us, what would? Loss of cable service? A shortage of i-pods?
In any case, I hope you'll join me over the last weekend of this month on the Mall to raise our voices against this stupid war. King would be there.

Happy New Year ... Let's Hope It's a Good One ...

I was looking back through some old files and I ran across this, from a speech I gave on the night of the invasion of Baghdad what seems like a lifetime ago. It still amazes me how much of this remains both timely and largely ignored by the powers that be. It's not that we were right back then. Rather, it's that the information available then on which to make these judgments remains both available and, again, largely ignored. Why does a war lurch onward that was wrong to begin with, that was wrong in its reasons, wrong in its execution and wrong in its continuation? I'll say again what I said then: this war is wrong.
So, here's what I said then:

Let’s get one thing straight: this war is wrong! Let’s say it loud so the whole world can hear it: this war is wrong!

I’m a preacher, not a policy maker, but it doesn’t take a policy expert to see that this war is wrong strategically. The risks of attacking and occupying a country at the heart of the Arab world far outweigh the risks of isolating and containing that country. So tonight we say to the world, strategically, this war is wrong!

I’m a preacher, not a politician, but it doesn’t take a pollster to see that this war is wrong politically. It’s not just that American public opinion is so divided, or even that today’s attacks threaten to divide America more deeply than it has been divided since the Vietnam War. No, it’s not just that; it’s this: more than 90 percent of the world’s population opposes this war. That matters. So tonight we say to the world, politically, this war is wrong!

I’m a preacher, not a diplomat, but it doesn’t take a U.N. ambassador to see that this war is wrong diplomatically. President Bush is mistaken: this war is not rendering the United Nations irrelevant. The world’s desire for peace can never be irrelevant to the community of nations. No: what is irrelevant to the community of nations is the American empire’s desire for domination. So tonight we say to the world, diplomatically, this war is wrong!

I’m a preacher, not a historian, but it doesn’t take a scholar nor a great distance in time to see that this war is wrong historically. You see, the greatness of a nation is not measured solely by its accomplishments. The moral greatness of a nation is measured by the means it employs to accomplish its purposes. History will judge us according to the death and destruction that issue forth from the actions initiated today. So tonight we say to the world, historically, this war is wrong!

You know what? I’m a preacher ... but I am also a parent. Last Sunday evening we held a candle light vigil at Forest Hill, and my three-year-old daughter walked with a crowd of about 175 singing, praying, peaceful people of faith holding a flickering flame of hope against the darkness of these days. And when we ended, she looked up at her mother and said, “Mommy, what else do we need to do to stop the war?”

Why can’t our leaders grasp the wisdom in the heart of a three-year-old girl? She doesn’t know much about war, but when she asks about it we just tell her “war means that lots of children get hurt.”

Lots of women, men and children will die in Iraq, and so tonight we say to the world, morally, this war is wrong.

This war is wrong: strategically, politically, diplomatically, historically, morally. This war is just plain wrong!

Tonight our tears flow together into rivers of anguish that threaten to form a mighty flood tide of anger and outrage. Let us channel these rivers of anguish into a force more powerful until justice rolls down like a mighty water and righteousness like an everflowing stream.

I think I heard somebody once say, “blessed are the peacemakers!”

I want you to look at the people standing around you here tonight.

You are blessed! We are all blessed! It might not feel that way today, because war rages and some call us unpatriotic. But dissent in support of the values of freedom, justice and peace is the most patriotic response we can make. But even in the face of suspicion, we are blessed because we are makers of peace.

We’ve got some difficult days ahead of us. That much is clear. But now is not the time to despair, for though our generation is tasting the bitter curse of war, we know that the peacemakers shall be called the children of God. Now is not the time to despair, because there’s too much work to be done. Now is not the time to despair, because no matter how dark this midnight feels, joy cometh with the morning that breaks forth with the bright light of shalom. Now is not the time to despair, for though mighty and awful weapons have been unleashed today, we know that day is coming when we shall beat our swords into plowshares and study war no more!

We don’t need to study any more to know one thing for certain: this war is wrong! This war is wrong and we want peace now!

Merry Christmas from DC

Dining While Gay, and Other Crimes

Of all the things I've seen responding to the local Episcopalians departure from the American Anglican church, this one, forwarded to me by a colleague, is the sharpest. It was written by Jim Naughton.
"The members of Truro and the Falls Church have now declared that belonging to a church that permits gays and lesbians to become bishops is too great a tax on their conscience, while belonging to a church that believes gay people should be imprisoned for eating together in public is not.
"I can suggest three reasons that Bishop Martyn Minns and his flock may have taken this decision. The first is naked bigotry. The second is a willingness to trade the human rights of innocent Africans for a more advantageous position in the battle for control of the Anglican Communion. The third is a profoundly distorted understanding of who Jesus was and what he taught.
"I'd like to believe that the last of these reasons explains the majority of the votes, because I recognize that my own salvation may depend on God showing mercy to those of us who are sincere in our misapprehensions.
"But, if Bishop Minns and his followers do, indeed, believe that gay Nigerians should be imprisoned for visiting a restaurant together, they need to inform us whether they believe gay Americans should be imprisoned for similar activities. And if they do not support the criminalization of such behavior in the United States, they need to explain why they favor--or, at the very least, acquiesce--in depriving Nigerians of rights that Americans enjoy."

Who Do We Shoot? And How ...

When confronted with the overwhelming complexity of Dust Bowl agricultural economics, Pa Joad in The Grapes of Wrath, asked a great question: "who do we shoot?" Pa Joad came to mind when reading an article by Daniel Schrag, a Harvard climate scientist, lamenting the state of public debate about climate change. Having testitfied at a Senate hearing this month, Schrag wrote, "As our leaders accept the outrageous spectacle I saw the other day as just a normal day in Congress, we will have to take the first step without them." I just wonder how. How do citizens of a democracy -- so called -- take effective steps on huge, systemic issues when the public institutions of the democracy no longer function? Sure, if the people lead, the leaders will follow -- but how, exactly, does that happen on a scale large enough to make a difference? Who do we shoot? Just asking.

Reimagining Christianity 2.0

Affirmation 10 holds that loving ourselves includes claiming the sacredness of both our minds and our hearts, recognizing that faith and science, doubt and belief serve the pursuit of truth. This seems, again, straightforward and in accordance with the scriptural command to love God with heart and mind and soul. But one doesn't have to look far at all to find faith, science and the pursuit of truth utterly confused. Whether the subject is creationism (check this scary site), atomic warfare, or sexual orientation, the views of science and the "literal word of God" (an interesting phrase when you consider who uses it and who doesn't so much anymore) are held to be at odds in the minds of many.
The heart breaking results of such confusions are plain to see in a piece in the New York Times on gay evangelicals trying to find a faith home. Robert Gagnon, quoted in the Times piece, is correct about one thing: "the concept gay evangelical is a contradiction.” Of course, he's wrong about everything else. The concept is a contradiction precisely because we have for too long allowed the rest of the key words that he uses -- authority of scripture, self-affirming, evangelical -- to be construed narrowly in a discourse controlled by a conservative orthodoxy. The entire enterprise of reimagining Christianity, it seems to me, aims at wresting control of the discourse away from such narrow-minded voices.

Reimagining Christianity 1.9

Affirmation 9 holds that "loving ourselves includes ... basing our lives on the faith that, in Christ, all things are made new, and that we, and all people, are loved beyond our wildest imagination – for eternity."
I suppose that means, "God is good, all the time ... for all time." Pretty basic -- until we actually try living as if it were true, or until we raise questions of theodicy (the problem of evil, as suggested by the picture.)
Both challenges are fundamental. As Bonhoeffer observed, the knowledge that God loves my worst enemy as much as God loves me must challenge the way I view the enemy. At the same time, the knowledge of what the worst in us can result in -- pain, suffering, injustice, war -- challenges our understanding of the goodness of God.
So, how do we trust this affirmation, and how do we live out of it?

Good Intentions and the Road to Hell

I went searching for an image for the "road to hell" and came across, instead, the image here of the road to the Bahgdad airport. It is certainly a hellish route made that way by the intentions -- good or ill -- of the empire and its insurgent opposition in Iraq.
My own intentions had nothing to do with such a route -- just looking for an imaginative way of saying "sorry for being dark for a while."
I don't know if a week with a board meeting, a Presbytery meeting and a newsletter deadline can be called one of "good intentions," but it has certainly overloaded a few circuits, including the virtual ones of the blog.
But the show will go on again soon. I promise. Thanks for checking back.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's a Texas Turkey! Everything is bigger in Texas -- even the turkeys. You can insert your own political joke .

Reimagining Christianity 1.8

Affirmation 8 holds that loving ourselves means walking humbly with God, acknowledging our own shortcomings while honestly seeking to understand and call forth the best in others, including those who consider us their enemies.
Hm, seeking understanding and calling forth the best from ... our enemies? Sounds risky and naive to me -- a call likely answered with a suicide bomb (do I play the conservative fear card well?)
I'm reminded of something Tony Campolo wrote after 9-11: "What has made it the very worst of times is that it is becoming more and more difficult to get away with talking about Jesus within the church. If you dare to quote Jesus in some Christian gatherings, you are likely to encounter hostility. ... If, without the required apologies, you should quote what Jesus had to say about how to treat enemies, it should be expected that one or more in the congregation will stand up and walk out. This is not a time when there are ready ears for words such as, 'Love your enemies and do good to those who would hurt you.'" (In Strike Terror No More.)
I had lunch this afternoon with some folks from the Rumi Forum, an organization that fosters interfaith dialogue between Muslims and nonMuslims. They spoke of both the difficulty and importance of such work in the post 9-11 world.
At a moment when some in the Christian world consider Islam itself the enemy of the West, seeking deeper mutual understanding and calling forth the best from one another sounds a bit less like risky naivete and a bit more like practical politics -- as the Confession of 1967 suggested a few years back.

Reimagining Christianity 1.7

Affirmation 7: Loving our neighbors includes preserving religious freedom and the church’s ability to speak prophetically to government by resisting the commingling of church and state.
Last week, on a stunningly beautiful autumn day, we loaded up the kids and drove down to Charlottesville to visit Monticello. It was the perfect setting to contemplate the separation of church and state.
In 1802, Jefferson wrote, "Believing... that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their Legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church and State."
Of course, Jefferson was wary also of the church mingling in the affairs of state. In 1815, he wrote, "Whenever... preachers, instead of a lesson in religion, put [their congregation] off with a discourse on the Copernican system, on chemical affinities, on the construction of government, or the characters or conduct of those administering it, it is a breach of contract, depriving their audience of the kind of service for which they are salaried, and giving them, instead of it, what they did not want, or, if wanted, would rather seek from better sources in that particular art of science."
Clearly, he did not think too highly of preachers!
But what happens when "lessons in religion" happen to turn on questions of justice? What is the role of the church in a time of war? What should the church say in the face of unjust economic structures? What of "love of neighbor" pushes us to an understanding of neighborliness that transgresses societal or even legal definitions such as Jim Crow laws, slavery, women's suffrage, same-sex relationships?
Just wondering ... that's all. And certainly no offense to Mr. Jefferson, who is one of my heroes.