buzz ... zzz

Some lucky reader yesterday became the 5,000th viewer of this blog. I'd give out prizes if I could. But since that's not gonna happen, here's a little present for you all: it's Yonkle, the Cowboy Jew! Actually, it's a poster for Yonkle, on display at the Ellis Island museum. Sorry the photo is lousy, but, what could be better, I wonder, than Yonkle, for telling the story of America? If Yonkle were around today, you can bet he'd have a You-Tube video floating around!

I Don't Care

Ok, enough with Anna Nicole Smith already. I really, really, really, really, really don't care. I just want to turn on a John McCutcheon CD and forget the news of the day, which seems to be 24/7 about this dead woman's body or baby or whatever. So, here's the song we should be listening to just now; it would be sooo easy to add 10 years of new material:

I Don't Care
Words & Music by John McCutcheon

Where did it come from, this love of the lurid?
When did reality just get too tame
From the Washington Post to the Weekly World News
It seems nobody has any shame
But when gossip abounds I have recently found
A remedy when I despair
To this junk that I see I respond with ennui
And say I really don't care

I don't care
I don't care

Who shot JR? Is Patty Hearst lying?
I don't care
Liz Taylor is marrying, Elvis is dying
I don't care

I don't care
I don't care
Let the rich and the glamorous ruin their lives
Going through fortunes and treatments and wives
And poor Donald Trump, he just barely survives
But I don't care

Rosanne & Tom, they'll not be a pair again
Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan
Does Michael Jordan gamble on golf?
Why does Hillary Clinton tick Rush Limbaugh off?

I don't care
I don't care
Though the National Enquirer says that it's so
For their lies and distortions they're paying good dough
But there are some things enquiring minds don't need to know
I don't care

Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie
They me that Oprah can wear a size 3
There's a piece of John Bobbitt right here on display
And there's OJ on twenty four hours a day

I don't care
I don't care
Though your troubles are mounting and you work like a drone
It's more fun to watch than to live on your own
Do you think Princess Di made those calls on her phone?

I don't care
I don't care
I really, really, really, really, really don't care
It's the same old sad story the whole world around
We build up our heroes wherever they're found
Then spend the rest of their lives tearing them down
I don't care

©1995 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP)

Searching for Mr. Wright?

My sister points out that I've made the N.Y. Times, albeit with my name (de blog) mispelled. Well, if they're searching for a candidate, perhaps I should be, too. So, what to look for? Molly Ivins' "good head of hair and a good line of talk"? When I google image searched "Mr. Right" this picture turned up. Perhaps a certain competence might be important. So many candidates ... and so much time before the election. How to choose ... how to choose? Suggestions for Mr. Right? Or, Mr. Wright?
Of course, the search for a candidate raises all kinds of questions for the so-called Christian Right, beginning with tax exemption! I'm still not sure how Jerry Falwell managed to hold on to any tax exemptions after declaring that anyone who calls himself or herself a Christian had to vote for George Bush.
On the other hand, that also raises for me the question of when it might become a "status confessionis" to oppose a candidate. That phrase come into renewed currency during the struggle against apartheid when the World Alliance of Reformed Churches declared that apartheid was a sin and that support for it was heresy. (I highly recommend the Kairos document.) In more narrowly construed politics, for instance, could one confess Jesus Christ and not oppose Hitler? In recent American elections, could one confess Jesus Christ and not oppose David Duke? At what point along that spectrum is the current Administration? Does illegal, immoral war determine one's response? Does the loss of civil liberties?
What is Christian Wright to do? What is the right Christian response to the politics of the day? Just asking -- no endorsement is expressed or implied!

God's Politics

Jim Wallis and the Daily Kos are having a tiff.

It seems that some on the progressive secular front don't see what the church might have to offer, while, as always, many in the church don't want to be "engaged in politics."

One of the great gifts the progressive church could offer to the wider church and culture is some clarity on this relationship between church and politics, especially in this time of deep divisions in our nation’s political life. Perhaps we have something of value to offer in response to the questions that must press in on us given the church’s troubled history of disastrous romances with political power.

These pressing questions seem quite obvious: should the church be involved in politics at all and, if so, how? But in fact, the obvious questions call forth nothing short of rethinking both the church and politics.

We could simply turn away from the political arena altogether. There are some, particularly in more conservative evangelical congregations, who believe the church should focus exclusively on questions of salvation, and they define salvation in purely spiritual, largely individualistic terms.

Against that spirit, we have the image Karl Barth famously articulated of the faithful pastor being one who held the Bible in one hand and the morning paper in the other.

But even if we remain informed and faithful citizens – guided by a Biblical tradition as we respond to the news of the day – we could limit our scope of work to worship, weddings, funerals, Bible study, blanket drives for the homeless, food drives for the poor and clothing drives for the destitute. These are surely important parts of who we are as church, and some feel that such work marks the extent of our calling as church.

Against that vision of church, I would ask, if we are to care for families in their times of joy and of mourning, should we not also care for their situations in the broader community? And if we are to care for the homeless, should we not also care for the medical and economic and social conditions that lead to homelessness? If we care enough to feed the hungry, do we not care enough to work for an end to hunger? If we are called to care for the destitute of the city, are we not also called to care for the ordering of the city itself when that ordering leaves so many struggling on the city’s margins? If we are to be minister of reconciliation, should we not also be engaged in resolving conflicts, including international ones, in a manner consistent with the call of disciples of the prince of peace?

Obviously, if we do such work we will be deeply engaged in politics, and, within the current American political spectrum, we will be engaged in progressive politics.

Although one might declare a scruple ...

Every officer in the Presbyterian church – elders, deacons, ministers of word and sacrament – must answer “yes” to a long list of ordination questions, including this one: “Will you fulfill your office in obedience to Jesus Christ, under the authority of Scripture, and be continually guided by our confessions?”
So, setting aside for now the monumental question of just what obedience to Jesus means, and likewise leaving aside the question of scriptural authority, what does it mean to be “guided by our confessions”?
What are these documents – some of which go back more than 1,500 years? What meaning do these premodern texts and the Reformation era and 20th-century ones, as well, have for a postmodern age? How ought we to read them? What about the stuff we really don’t like? Or with which we fundamentally disagree? Where did they come from? Who wrote them? Why?
Off and on during this season of Lent, I, and others, will post some reflections on the creeds and confession of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) here, and invite your response. Oh, and what other questions should we pose to these documents?

Pulling the Plug

A friend sent me an e-mail today about a demonstration at an "ex-gay ministries" conference in San Francisco. It was a thoughtful piece of reporting that focused mostly on the perspectives of seminary students at the Bay Area theological schools consortium who led the demonstration. They spoke of the pain that such "reparative" therapies cause and of the conviction that God made us all -- straight and gay. I was with them all the way ... until the last paragraph:

"Unfortunately, the lie has been that people need to change their sexual orientation and taht's just not true," said Caruana, the pastor of Freedom in Christ. "God created us gay. God loves us. God sent his son to save us. All he cares about is our salvation in Jesus Christ and not what orientation we are sexually."

The baby of inclusivity drowns in the bath water of orthodoxy. We need to pull the plug altogether, drain the tub and scrub away the ring of Constantinian theology. Begin with the masculine image of God and tear down the patriarchy step by necessary step straight through wretched atonement theologies and other-worldly salvation and Christian imperialism.

Republican Jesus

A couple of years back, I gave up conservative bashing for Lent. It was way more difficult than giving up chocolate, and I'm not going to try it again this time, as the image here surely indicates. I was searching for images of Jesus, when I encountered Republican Jesus. He's my new hero! It seems like the current crop of Republican presidential hopefuls are a bit shaky. I think they should just nominate this guy to replace Bush in 08.

I Love this Game ... sometimes

In case there was any doubt about the singular importance of standing always in the public square squarely for the full equality of GLBT folks, then look no further than the crazy wide world of sports for confirmation. This time, NBA style. Here's an interesting commentary.

Won't You Please Come to DC?

In case you've missed it, please check this link on the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq at the National Cathedral next month. Hope to see you there. Peace.

Why I'll Watch

In case you missed it, there’s a little football game being played this weekend. Last month, when the Network of Spiritual Progressives met on a Sunday evening, we were scheduling for the coming months, and I noted that the date under consideration at the moment would fall on the highest holy day of the American calendar: Super Bowl Sunday.

While my comment was met with some derision by a few of the stalwart progressives, you’ll notice that the February meeting of the Northern Virginia NSP is, in fact, on Feb. 11.. Personally, I’ve never been one of those progressives with a knee-jerk dismissal of sports; probably because I love to play, and only recently gave up my life-long dream of playing professional basketball.

Hey! What was it that Carl Sandburg said? “Nothing happens unless first we dream.”

On the other hand, dreaming won’t make you 6’5” when DNA offers only 5’11 ¾.”

Of course I can recite a sound, progressive critique of the horribly skewed values that lead cities and states to spend hundreds of millions on playgrounds for the rich while neglecting public schools and health care and public safety. And I can join the chorus of complaints about paying worn-out relief pitchers $5 million while paying teachers and firefighters and police officers one percent of that amount. And I can rail against the media frenzy that so easily lets us entertain ourselves to death while an unjust war rages in our name.

All those critiques of misplaced values and misspent money are spot on; but still, I watch the games, and play them myself whenever I get a chance, because I see something when I watch great athletes perform.

I see human beings fully alive, and, as Augustine said, “the glory of God is a human being fully alive.” (Check out the "Human Being ..." pictured above.)

I see human beings fully alive, seizing a moment in time to use their singular gifts and become – for a brief moment – precisely what they are called to be as athletes.

Most of us, of course, will never experience such moments when our bodies behave precisely as our minds imagine and desire. Indeed, few of us experience many moments when we feel that we are using our own gifts to become precisely what we are called to be – not as athletes, surely, but as human beings.

So, I’ll watch the game this weekend with only a smidge of liberal guilt, which I’ll set aside as I witness a small group of men try to live into their own particular calling for the one sphere of their lives lived on the field of play.

I’ll watch with jealousy – not of their skill, nor of their stardom, nor of their salaries. Rather, I’ll watch with jealousy because these guys seem to know, with great clarity, precisely what it is that they are called to do with their gifts.

Granted, if we use Frederick Buechner’s provocative definition of call – that place where your deep joy meets the world’s deep need – one can quickly question what need in the world athletes meet? Most of the answers that one could offer – beauty, excellence, play itself – are gratuitous; on the other hand, most every human culture has celebrated athletic achievement in some fashion.

That our culture and economy have created a place of incredible financial reward for certain highly marketable athletic gifts no doubt helps athletes in some sports reach clarity of purpose. I imagine multi-million dollar contracts have a way of focusing one’s attention! Still, I’m willing to bet that most of the truly gifted athletes we watch play for insane amounts of money would be playing games for nothing if the money were not there.

That’s certainly one way of measuring the deep joy dimension of call: what would you do with your time if money were no object? When Michael Jordan signed his first huge contract, he had a so-called “love of the game” provision included that allowed him to play pick-up basketball games at any time, even though that posed a considerable financial risk to his team if he were injured.

In the end, the way we spend our time is the way we spend our lives. How, then, do we measure it, and dole it out, and decide how to spend what we have been given – life itself, and our several seasons in which to live it?

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.