I keep coming to this harsh realization that much of what passes for Christianity these days seems to boil down to two things.
The first is 'sin management.' People sin. People fall short of God's glory. No one lives even close to perfect lives. As a result, God needs to be a God who provides sin management. How do we manage the sins we have committed in life?
The second is 'ticket to Heaven.' The Gospel seems to have been shrunken down to Jesus coming, living, and dying on the cross to pass out tickets to Heaven. Too often the Gospel and our lives here on earth as worthless unless we get a ticket to Heaven.
A big issue with Christianity right now is that it has made God too small to be God. And people wonder why churches are shrinking. When we make our God so small; when we diminish God into one who simply manages sins; when we eliminate the Gospel unto the point of a ticket giver, why are we surprised that Christianity is losing steam in the modern day world?
Monday, March 28, 2011
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Sermon for March 27, 2011
Reflecting on Commitment
Text: John 15:18-25
Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo
March 27, 2011
If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you.
These chapters from the Gospel of John are what is usually called Jesus’ Final Discourse. It is a theological rationale for who he was, what he was, and an explanation about his ministry. It is, in so many ways, a classic apologia, a discourse telling the world, who and what he was.
And there are the words. If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. These are words that cannot have mad the apostles jump up and say, “Wow, we’re really excited about this!!!” These are words to the effect that Jesus is saying, “If you follow me, people will hate you.” Jesus was also correct about this.
Jesus was warning them that following him, being a Christian, was going to be difficult. Making a commitment to follow Jesus is one thing; living out that commitment is an entirely other thing. Sometimes reflecting on the commitment we make to God is worthwhile.
The commitment to Christ has never been an easy one.
In the early Christian church being a Christian was illegal. The Romans persecuted the early Christians, the ancient Jews struggled the early Christians, and the early Christians persecuted each other because they didn’t all agree with one another.
As time went on the persecution of Christians was mostly done by other Christians. The Spanish Inquisition pre-dated the Protestant Reformation and it was Christians persecuting other Christians for often minor variations of belief.
After the time of the Protestant Reformation there was widespread persecution of Christians by other Christians. There was, of course, conflict between the Protestants and the Roman Catholics, but there were also internal conflicts among Roman Catholics and among Protestants. If you lived in Geneva at the time of John Calvin and disagreed with him, you were in mortal danger. Christians not only argued with one another, they persecuted and killed one another.
So being a Christian has never been particularly easy.
In recent years things have changed in so many ways, but in other ways, the same problems that Christianity has wrestled with still remain.
When North Korea became a Communist country they were officially atheists. One day the government announced, however, that all Christians could practice their faith openly and encouraged everyone who really believed in God to attend Worship on a particular Sunday. On that day people excitedly went to Worship and the churches were packed. And in all the churches around the country, the doors were bolted and the churches were burned to the ground filled with worshipers. It was a horrible display of persecution. Christians throughout the world have suffered at the hands of those who hate people who have faith in Jesus Christ.
In our nation and place in time, we celebrate a freedom of religion that is good. But it doesn’t mean that Christianity is thriving. In fact, if you research it, Worship attendance across the country has been on a downward turn for years. The largest religious growth group in the United States are people who call themselves ‘spiritual, but not religious.’ Some are on a journey real of faith and some are not. But one of the biggest problems so many people have is Christianity is seen in a variety of ways, and many of those ways are not very helpful.
People like to blame the government or the news media, or science, or 1001 other things, but, as throughout history, the biggest problem with Christianity has been the way it’s been practiced. A major factor in the diminishment of Christianity has not been from outside of Christianity, but within ourselves.
I want to reflect on two things.
The first is this. Author Scott McKnight argues that one of the primary sins that hinders the progress of the gospel is individualism.
“Individualism is an intentional march away from Eden, away from God and away from others. When the gospel is packaged as attractive to individuals instead of a community, the problem is only compounded. Individualism makes God and others into commodities we choose to further our own ends”
One of the most common words used in the Bible is the Greek word koinonia. It is most usually translated as communion, association, fellowship, sharing, common, contribution, or partnership. Christianity from the very beginning existed as a corporate reality, as a community. To be Christian meant just to belong to the community. Nobody could be Christian by himself or herself, as an isolated individual, but only together with others.
The dictionary defines individualism as, "the leading of one's life in one's own way without regard for others." The definition and recognizing that the church is about community, demonstrates that individualism and Christianity have little in common.
Yet, in recent years, individualism has arisen in Christianity a great deal. In recent weeks I’ve been reading about people attacking a new book by Rob Bell entitled, Love Wins. A pastor in North Carolina was fired by his congregation because, horror of horrors, he agreed with Bell that God’s grace is all pervasive. One critic of Bell said that we are nothing without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Funny thing about that expression, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. If you ask older people they’ll tell you that they never recall that being talked about in church. The reason is, it wasn’t. It’s usage became more and more popular in more recent years when individualism began to permeate society and Christianity. The expression a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is not in the Bible. When people say we are nothing without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ they are not citing te Bible and they are not citing anything prevalent in historic Christianity.
Christianity has always been communal and being around others and serving others. While I would never tell anyone that they should not develop a personal relationship with God or personally pray or personally make choices about their faith, I would never say that we are nothing without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
And the more Christianity embraces the concept of individualism, the idea that it’s all about me, the more we will diminish.
The second thing is this.
Over the years we’ve come to diminish God.
The other day I was doing some research for this sermon and I was listening to sermons about God and people’s perceptions on God and salvation. One man in Arizona really stood out.
He preached a sermon about Joel Osteen, the Pastor of the largest church in the country and a proponent of the so-called prosperity Gospel. This guy said that Osteen was going to hell.
He preached a sermon about Billy Graham. We’ve all heard of Billy Graham. He’s going to hell as well, according to this guy.
If you read or use any Bible besides the 1611 King James Version. Hell. If you are a woman who wears a head covering----most especially if you are an Amish woman wearing a head covering. Hell. If you’ve ever practiced birth control. Hell. Gay? Hell. Every said hello to a gay person. Hell. Went to college. Hell. The Pope. Hell. Roman Catholics. Hell.
He never mentioned the United Church of Christ, but if I had to guess I’d guess his perception is that our futures are warm.
His perception of God strikes me as being a God who views human life as a Pass/Fail course, and most people Fail. It seems like a really small image of God.
Or there is the image of God as a cosmic Santa Claus. If we ask God for something, we’ll get it. Want a pony----then pray for a pony and God will give you a pony.
If someone is sick and you really have faith, then pray for them and they will get well.
At the casino and want to win big? Just pray and it’ll come true.
Want your team to win the big game? Just pray and they’ll do it.
Again, this is a small image of God. Most of us don’t get the ponies, everyone ultimately dies, and despite the fervent prayers from up the road, most people don’t beat the casino’s odds. And Lord knows I’ve prayed for the Giants during games as so many people have done for their teams, and have had my heart broken.
But my point is this. Whenever people who are Christians make God small, when we make God exclusionary, when we make God into little more than a cosmic Santa Claus, or do whatever it is we do to make God smaller, we make God less Godlike and when God is no longer God, when God is no longer beyond our comprehension and ability to fully understand, we make God easy to dismiss. And when we make God easy to dismiss we make it easy for people to not really have a need to commit----and we make ourselves have an easier time not committing.
What made commitment difficult in Jesus’ time was danger. What made commitment difficult in later times was confusion and danger. And what makes commitment difficult now is losing the communal emphasis of the Gospel and diminishing God down to our size.
The Gospel is not easy. God is not easy. As we travel this season of Lent, let’s not embrace a God who is easy to embrace and easy to understand, but let us together, as a community, embrace the Gospel, and embrace God, for what is really there.
Text: John 15:18-25
Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo
March 27, 2011
If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you.
These chapters from the Gospel of John are what is usually called Jesus’ Final Discourse. It is a theological rationale for who he was, what he was, and an explanation about his ministry. It is, in so many ways, a classic apologia, a discourse telling the world, who and what he was.
And there are the words. If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. These are words that cannot have mad the apostles jump up and say, “Wow, we’re really excited about this!!!” These are words to the effect that Jesus is saying, “If you follow me, people will hate you.” Jesus was also correct about this.
Jesus was warning them that following him, being a Christian, was going to be difficult. Making a commitment to follow Jesus is one thing; living out that commitment is an entirely other thing. Sometimes reflecting on the commitment we make to God is worthwhile.
The commitment to Christ has never been an easy one.
In the early Christian church being a Christian was illegal. The Romans persecuted the early Christians, the ancient Jews struggled the early Christians, and the early Christians persecuted each other because they didn’t all agree with one another.
As time went on the persecution of Christians was mostly done by other Christians. The Spanish Inquisition pre-dated the Protestant Reformation and it was Christians persecuting other Christians for often minor variations of belief.
After the time of the Protestant Reformation there was widespread persecution of Christians by other Christians. There was, of course, conflict between the Protestants and the Roman Catholics, but there were also internal conflicts among Roman Catholics and among Protestants. If you lived in Geneva at the time of John Calvin and disagreed with him, you were in mortal danger. Christians not only argued with one another, they persecuted and killed one another.
So being a Christian has never been particularly easy.
In recent years things have changed in so many ways, but in other ways, the same problems that Christianity has wrestled with still remain.
When North Korea became a Communist country they were officially atheists. One day the government announced, however, that all Christians could practice their faith openly and encouraged everyone who really believed in God to attend Worship on a particular Sunday. On that day people excitedly went to Worship and the churches were packed. And in all the churches around the country, the doors were bolted and the churches were burned to the ground filled with worshipers. It was a horrible display of persecution. Christians throughout the world have suffered at the hands of those who hate people who have faith in Jesus Christ.
In our nation and place in time, we celebrate a freedom of religion that is good. But it doesn’t mean that Christianity is thriving. In fact, if you research it, Worship attendance across the country has been on a downward turn for years. The largest religious growth group in the United States are people who call themselves ‘spiritual, but not religious.’ Some are on a journey real of faith and some are not. But one of the biggest problems so many people have is Christianity is seen in a variety of ways, and many of those ways are not very helpful.
People like to blame the government or the news media, or science, or 1001 other things, but, as throughout history, the biggest problem with Christianity has been the way it’s been practiced. A major factor in the diminishment of Christianity has not been from outside of Christianity, but within ourselves.
I want to reflect on two things.
The first is this. Author Scott McKnight argues that one of the primary sins that hinders the progress of the gospel is individualism.
“Individualism is an intentional march away from Eden, away from God and away from others. When the gospel is packaged as attractive to individuals instead of a community, the problem is only compounded. Individualism makes God and others into commodities we choose to further our own ends”
One of the most common words used in the Bible is the Greek word koinonia. It is most usually translated as communion, association, fellowship, sharing, common, contribution, or partnership. Christianity from the very beginning existed as a corporate reality, as a community. To be Christian meant just to belong to the community. Nobody could be Christian by himself or herself, as an isolated individual, but only together with others.
The dictionary defines individualism as, "the leading of one's life in one's own way without regard for others." The definition and recognizing that the church is about community, demonstrates that individualism and Christianity have little in common.
Yet, in recent years, individualism has arisen in Christianity a great deal. In recent weeks I’ve been reading about people attacking a new book by Rob Bell entitled, Love Wins. A pastor in North Carolina was fired by his congregation because, horror of horrors, he agreed with Bell that God’s grace is all pervasive. One critic of Bell said that we are nothing without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Funny thing about that expression, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. If you ask older people they’ll tell you that they never recall that being talked about in church. The reason is, it wasn’t. It’s usage became more and more popular in more recent years when individualism began to permeate society and Christianity. The expression a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is not in the Bible. When people say we are nothing without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ they are not citing te Bible and they are not citing anything prevalent in historic Christianity.
Christianity has always been communal and being around others and serving others. While I would never tell anyone that they should not develop a personal relationship with God or personally pray or personally make choices about their faith, I would never say that we are nothing without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
And the more Christianity embraces the concept of individualism, the idea that it’s all about me, the more we will diminish.
The second thing is this.
Over the years we’ve come to diminish God.
The other day I was doing some research for this sermon and I was listening to sermons about God and people’s perceptions on God and salvation. One man in Arizona really stood out.
He preached a sermon about Joel Osteen, the Pastor of the largest church in the country and a proponent of the so-called prosperity Gospel. This guy said that Osteen was going to hell.
He preached a sermon about Billy Graham. We’ve all heard of Billy Graham. He’s going to hell as well, according to this guy.
If you read or use any Bible besides the 1611 King James Version. Hell. If you are a woman who wears a head covering----most especially if you are an Amish woman wearing a head covering. Hell. If you’ve ever practiced birth control. Hell. Gay? Hell. Every said hello to a gay person. Hell. Went to college. Hell. The Pope. Hell. Roman Catholics. Hell.
He never mentioned the United Church of Christ, but if I had to guess I’d guess his perception is that our futures are warm.
His perception of God strikes me as being a God who views human life as a Pass/Fail course, and most people Fail. It seems like a really small image of God.
Or there is the image of God as a cosmic Santa Claus. If we ask God for something, we’ll get it. Want a pony----then pray for a pony and God will give you a pony.
If someone is sick and you really have faith, then pray for them and they will get well.
At the casino and want to win big? Just pray and it’ll come true.
Want your team to win the big game? Just pray and they’ll do it.
Again, this is a small image of God. Most of us don’t get the ponies, everyone ultimately dies, and despite the fervent prayers from up the road, most people don’t beat the casino’s odds. And Lord knows I’ve prayed for the Giants during games as so many people have done for their teams, and have had my heart broken.
But my point is this. Whenever people who are Christians make God small, when we make God exclusionary, when we make God into little more than a cosmic Santa Claus, or do whatever it is we do to make God smaller, we make God less Godlike and when God is no longer God, when God is no longer beyond our comprehension and ability to fully understand, we make God easy to dismiss. And when we make God easy to dismiss we make it easy for people to not really have a need to commit----and we make ourselves have an easier time not committing.
What made commitment difficult in Jesus’ time was danger. What made commitment difficult in later times was confusion and danger. And what makes commitment difficult now is losing the communal emphasis of the Gospel and diminishing God down to our size.
The Gospel is not easy. God is not easy. As we travel this season of Lent, let’s not embrace a God who is easy to embrace and easy to understand, but let us together, as a community, embrace the Gospel, and embrace God, for what is really there.
Random Musings
I keep thinking I really need to get back to this and so I'm going to try and be better about my blogging.
Basketball is on. I'm not a basketball fan. I never have been and living in Southern Indiana it seems like I really should be. I am excited, however, that Butler is doing so well again. They are a small, very fine academic school and not a classic basketball factory. Good stuff.
I read a person's Facebook post the other day and the writer cited Barack Obama and his statements about a President going to war. At the time those comments were, in my mind, very critical and appropriately critical, of President Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq. Sadly, President Obama seems to be doing the same thing with Libya. This puts is in THREE wars, and frankly, I'm not convinced we should be in any of them right now. I understood the initial incursion into Afghanistan, but that is all. The continued, even escalated war there bothers me. Iraq always bothered me and Libya does not seem to have any sort of real goal or strategy.
Michele Bachmann may be running for President. To me, her ideological beliefs are not relevant. The woman is a flat out liar. She's been caught in more lies than Peyton Manning has thrown touchdown passes. Liars like her should not hold public office. Period. End of rant.
I have been reading Rob Bell's wonderful book, "Love Wins." I've read a great deal of criticism about his book written by people pre-publication. It makes me wonder if half the people who 'hate' his book have read it. I'm guessing not because half of what I've read is bad about the book doesn't seem to be actually in the book. It strikes me that people who love to ask questions and ask the big questions about God and faith will love this book. The people who demand absolute answers will hate this book. I suspect there will be very few people in between. I just hope people actually read the book before rendering judgments about it.
As an aside, I hope Amanda Knox is found not guilty. I think she's been treated horribly. That's just my opinion....
I saw a news story about a woman rape in Libya by Libyan police officers. When she was crying, weeping with the press, she was arrested. The injustice of this is heart breaking. I'd be surprised if she is still alive. She was guilty of being a rape victim and speaking about it. This kind of injustice is intolerable.
Newt Gingrich seems to believe that telling people he cheated on his previous two wives because he was a 'patriot' is a good excuse and a good rationale. This may rival "a wide stance."
Japan. My heart breaks for the people there. The devastation and suffering are beyond my comprehension. The people of that land need to be held close to our hearts.
Basketball is on. I'm not a basketball fan. I never have been and living in Southern Indiana it seems like I really should be. I am excited, however, that Butler is doing so well again. They are a small, very fine academic school and not a classic basketball factory. Good stuff.
I read a person's Facebook post the other day and the writer cited Barack Obama and his statements about a President going to war. At the time those comments were, in my mind, very critical and appropriately critical, of President Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq. Sadly, President Obama seems to be doing the same thing with Libya. This puts is in THREE wars, and frankly, I'm not convinced we should be in any of them right now. I understood the initial incursion into Afghanistan, but that is all. The continued, even escalated war there bothers me. Iraq always bothered me and Libya does not seem to have any sort of real goal or strategy.
Michele Bachmann may be running for President. To me, her ideological beliefs are not relevant. The woman is a flat out liar. She's been caught in more lies than Peyton Manning has thrown touchdown passes. Liars like her should not hold public office. Period. End of rant.
I have been reading Rob Bell's wonderful book, "Love Wins." I've read a great deal of criticism about his book written by people pre-publication. It makes me wonder if half the people who 'hate' his book have read it. I'm guessing not because half of what I've read is bad about the book doesn't seem to be actually in the book. It strikes me that people who love to ask questions and ask the big questions about God and faith will love this book. The people who demand absolute answers will hate this book. I suspect there will be very few people in between. I just hope people actually read the book before rendering judgments about it.
As an aside, I hope Amanda Knox is found not guilty. I think she's been treated horribly. That's just my opinion....
I saw a news story about a woman rape in Libya by Libyan police officers. When she was crying, weeping with the press, she was arrested. The injustice of this is heart breaking. I'd be surprised if she is still alive. She was guilty of being a rape victim and speaking about it. This kind of injustice is intolerable.
Newt Gingrich seems to believe that telling people he cheated on his previous two wives because he was a 'patriot' is a good excuse and a good rationale. This may rival "a wide stance."
Japan. My heart breaks for the people there. The devastation and suffering are beyond my comprehension. The people of that land need to be held close to our hearts.
Sunday, March 06, 2011
Mountaintop Experience: Being a Zesty Christian Text: Matthew 5:13-20
Mountaintop Experience:
Being a Zesty Christian
Text: Matthew 5:13-20
Over the years I have heard many people tell me that one of their favorite things in the Bible is the Sermon on the Mount. I’ve often wondered, however, if the people who like the Sermon on the Mount so much have ever read it. It has strange stuff in it like the Beatitudes which are often difficult to explain, a notion of turning the other cheek, and what we read today.
Being salt. Being light. Living so that others may say our good works and living a life according to the way God wants us to live. These commands from the mountaintop are, in so many ways, inviting us to being inspired Christians, potent Christians, zesty Christians, if you will.
As I was contemplating this week, however, I was vexed. I wasn’t quite sure what, exactly, Jesus’ point was.
Does he mean standing on the street corner and preaching the Gospel, loudly, to everyone who passes by. I’ve heard people do this and, frankly, most of them struck me as lunatics and, to be honest, not very interesting.
Does it mean standing on the pews while singing a hymn and singing louder than everyone else around you? I guess it’s possible, but I also would imagine you’d annoy everyone around you, especially if you sang badly.
Or do you hang out at the mall and tell everyone you meet that Jesus is really cool and awesome. Again, I’ve seen this done and felt more annoyed by the people doing it than inspired.
But what might Jesus’ point be?
Within the tradition of Judaism and adopted by Jesus there is a command to love God with all our heart and all our mind. The more I thought about this, loving God with my mind and my heart, fully, is a way of being a zesty Christian.
First, loving God with our minds.
God does not call us to be stupid. God does not call us to check our brains at the door of churches. God does not call us to live bad psychology, speak in poor English, embrace bad science or rewrite history to the way we want it to be as opposed to how it is. God does not call us to be stupid because loving God, fully, requires our minds.
One thing we do well here is have Sunday School classes and Bible study where we want people to ask questions. A questioning faith is a stronger faith.
Centuries ago if you went to a Puritan church their Worship Service was very different from our’s. The men would sit on one side and the women on the other. They would sit in benches with no backs. Hymns would be sung with only the accompanying of a drum. The sermon would be either a one turn or a two turn sermon.
The Pastor would preach with an hourglass on the pulpit. A real hourglass with a full hour of sand in it. A one turn sermon was when the Pastor preached for an hour and turned the hourglass over and he’d preach for another hour. A two turn sermon was he’d turn it over again and preach for a third hour. Imagine coming to church and having a two to three hour sermon! But that’s not all they did. They would spend the next hour or so asking the Pastor questions about the sermon. They expected the Pastor to be able to defend any arguments he made in the sermon. If they didn’t like his Biblical interpretation, they asked him about it. They expected their Pastor to know what he was talking about and they had no qualms in questioning him.
And that is a great thing. Seriously. An unquestioning faith is a faith not being fully lived out.
One of my favorite stories is about an old, very wise Rabbi who was on his death bed. His twelve students were next to the bed, lined up from brightest to dullest, waiting to hear his final words.
He whispered, “Life is like a mushroom.”
The brightest student whispered, “Life is like a mushroom,” to the next student until finally the dullest student was told, “Life is like a mushroom.” To which the dullest student said, “Life is like a mushroom? That doesn’t make any sense!”
So the chain started back, whispering from student to student with disdainful faces at the dullest student for saying such a thing. Then finally the brightest student in the class whispered to the Rabbi, “Life is like a mushroom? That doesn’t make any sense!”
And then the Rabbi said, “So maybe life isn’t like a mushroom.”
That’s an old story and one thing I’ve always wondered about is this. I’ve often thought that, perhaps the dullest student was actually the brightest and most faithful student because he was the only one willing to question things.
The second part of being a zesty Christian is loving God with our hearts. Loving God with our minds us what we think about God; loving God with our hearts is what we feel and how we feel about God.
Let me make a confession about this. This part of the sermon is really difficult for me because my approach to God is mostly through my mind and mostly intellectual and even academic. I can easily talk about what I think about God, whereas what I feel about God is a lot different.
This past week I started my 10th year at St. Marks and I was recalling something that took place not long after I arrived here. I was told that there was a criticism of me that I wasn’t emotional enough at Worship or in my sermons. To be quite honest, even though I remembered the criticism I didn’t take it all that seriously. I’m not really a very emotional person and being emotional during Worship is not my style. I am what I am, and when you see me get emotional, it’s genuine.
But what is striking to me is that it makes it difficult to talking about feelings about God and passion.
But there are things I get very emotional and passionate about. I’m emotional and passionate about my family. And I’m emotional and passionate about what is best for children. I really love children and the other day I found myself in emotional knots.
Years ago I was asked by a math teacher to justify having things like music and art in school. He said that he saw little to no value in having them in school because, after all, who in society really needs music and art. My response to him was that in church we greatly need, appreciate, and utilize music and art all the time. We see it, hear it, and appreciate it all the time.
The other day it was announced that one of the potential cuts was cutting out Phys-Ed, Music, and Art from the grade schools. I’m no athlete, I’m not a musician, and I’m not an artist, but I found myself and still find myself raging. I cannot fathom the devastating this impact will have on churches in the long term.
Imagine, if you will, St. Marks without art and music. Look around out at the amazing stained glass windows. Art. Imagine we removed them and anything artistic in this building.
In addition we will remove the organ, throw away our hymnals, have no pianos, have no choirs, no hymns and no music.
Right now, in our church our organist, Sara, is a retired music teacher. Laura, our minister of music is a music teacher. Susan Adams, one of the people who compiled our hymnal is a music teacher. Sandy Carter who has worked miracles with children has been playing and working with school children, in schools, for years. Ricky Case is a music major.
When does this passion arise?
I learned this lesson many years ago. My daughter Danielle majored in Art Education at Hanover and teaches at Community Montessori and does all the art education there as well as teaching in her classroom. We found a diary of her’s when she was in school and she wrote that she was excited because tomorrow was her favorite class. Art. She was in the second grade.
I realized in the midst of all this angst my passion level was going up and up and up and it dawned on me that when I feel this strongly, and when we feel such strong passion about God and serving God and praising God, we are loving God with all our hearts.
Jesus’ words, in the Sermon on the Mount, challenge us to be zesty, even salty Christians. It doesn’t mean we have to cover ourselves in lemon juice or use salty language. It means to really love and serve God, fully, with our minds and our hearts.
It is being unafraid to question, to challenge, and to think. It is learning to capture our passion and use it in God’s service.
Being a Zesty Christian
Text: Matthew 5:13-20
Over the years I have heard many people tell me that one of their favorite things in the Bible is the Sermon on the Mount. I’ve often wondered, however, if the people who like the Sermon on the Mount so much have ever read it. It has strange stuff in it like the Beatitudes which are often difficult to explain, a notion of turning the other cheek, and what we read today.
Being salt. Being light. Living so that others may say our good works and living a life according to the way God wants us to live. These commands from the mountaintop are, in so many ways, inviting us to being inspired Christians, potent Christians, zesty Christians, if you will.
As I was contemplating this week, however, I was vexed. I wasn’t quite sure what, exactly, Jesus’ point was.
Does he mean standing on the street corner and preaching the Gospel, loudly, to everyone who passes by. I’ve heard people do this and, frankly, most of them struck me as lunatics and, to be honest, not very interesting.
Does it mean standing on the pews while singing a hymn and singing louder than everyone else around you? I guess it’s possible, but I also would imagine you’d annoy everyone around you, especially if you sang badly.
Or do you hang out at the mall and tell everyone you meet that Jesus is really cool and awesome. Again, I’ve seen this done and felt more annoyed by the people doing it than inspired.
But what might Jesus’ point be?
Within the tradition of Judaism and adopted by Jesus there is a command to love God with all our heart and all our mind. The more I thought about this, loving God with my mind and my heart, fully, is a way of being a zesty Christian.
First, loving God with our minds.
God does not call us to be stupid. God does not call us to check our brains at the door of churches. God does not call us to live bad psychology, speak in poor English, embrace bad science or rewrite history to the way we want it to be as opposed to how it is. God does not call us to be stupid because loving God, fully, requires our minds.
One thing we do well here is have Sunday School classes and Bible study where we want people to ask questions. A questioning faith is a stronger faith.
Centuries ago if you went to a Puritan church their Worship Service was very different from our’s. The men would sit on one side and the women on the other. They would sit in benches with no backs. Hymns would be sung with only the accompanying of a drum. The sermon would be either a one turn or a two turn sermon.
The Pastor would preach with an hourglass on the pulpit. A real hourglass with a full hour of sand in it. A one turn sermon was when the Pastor preached for an hour and turned the hourglass over and he’d preach for another hour. A two turn sermon was he’d turn it over again and preach for a third hour. Imagine coming to church and having a two to three hour sermon! But that’s not all they did. They would spend the next hour or so asking the Pastor questions about the sermon. They expected the Pastor to be able to defend any arguments he made in the sermon. If they didn’t like his Biblical interpretation, they asked him about it. They expected their Pastor to know what he was talking about and they had no qualms in questioning him.
And that is a great thing. Seriously. An unquestioning faith is a faith not being fully lived out.
One of my favorite stories is about an old, very wise Rabbi who was on his death bed. His twelve students were next to the bed, lined up from brightest to dullest, waiting to hear his final words.
He whispered, “Life is like a mushroom.”
The brightest student whispered, “Life is like a mushroom,” to the next student until finally the dullest student was told, “Life is like a mushroom.” To which the dullest student said, “Life is like a mushroom? That doesn’t make any sense!”
So the chain started back, whispering from student to student with disdainful faces at the dullest student for saying such a thing. Then finally the brightest student in the class whispered to the Rabbi, “Life is like a mushroom? That doesn’t make any sense!”
And then the Rabbi said, “So maybe life isn’t like a mushroom.”
That’s an old story and one thing I’ve always wondered about is this. I’ve often thought that, perhaps the dullest student was actually the brightest and most faithful student because he was the only one willing to question things.
The second part of being a zesty Christian is loving God with our hearts. Loving God with our minds us what we think about God; loving God with our hearts is what we feel and how we feel about God.
Let me make a confession about this. This part of the sermon is really difficult for me because my approach to God is mostly through my mind and mostly intellectual and even academic. I can easily talk about what I think about God, whereas what I feel about God is a lot different.
This past week I started my 10th year at St. Marks and I was recalling something that took place not long after I arrived here. I was told that there was a criticism of me that I wasn’t emotional enough at Worship or in my sermons. To be quite honest, even though I remembered the criticism I didn’t take it all that seriously. I’m not really a very emotional person and being emotional during Worship is not my style. I am what I am, and when you see me get emotional, it’s genuine.
But what is striking to me is that it makes it difficult to talking about feelings about God and passion.
But there are things I get very emotional and passionate about. I’m emotional and passionate about my family. And I’m emotional and passionate about what is best for children. I really love children and the other day I found myself in emotional knots.
Years ago I was asked by a math teacher to justify having things like music and art in school. He said that he saw little to no value in having them in school because, after all, who in society really needs music and art. My response to him was that in church we greatly need, appreciate, and utilize music and art all the time. We see it, hear it, and appreciate it all the time.
The other day it was announced that one of the potential cuts was cutting out Phys-Ed, Music, and Art from the grade schools. I’m no athlete, I’m not a musician, and I’m not an artist, but I found myself and still find myself raging. I cannot fathom the devastating this impact will have on churches in the long term.
Imagine, if you will, St. Marks without art and music. Look around out at the amazing stained glass windows. Art. Imagine we removed them and anything artistic in this building.
In addition we will remove the organ, throw away our hymnals, have no pianos, have no choirs, no hymns and no music.
Right now, in our church our organist, Sara, is a retired music teacher. Laura, our minister of music is a music teacher. Susan Adams, one of the people who compiled our hymnal is a music teacher. Sandy Carter who has worked miracles with children has been playing and working with school children, in schools, for years. Ricky Case is a music major.
When does this passion arise?
I learned this lesson many years ago. My daughter Danielle majored in Art Education at Hanover and teaches at Community Montessori and does all the art education there as well as teaching in her classroom. We found a diary of her’s when she was in school and she wrote that she was excited because tomorrow was her favorite class. Art. She was in the second grade.
I realized in the midst of all this angst my passion level was going up and up and up and it dawned on me that when I feel this strongly, and when we feel such strong passion about God and serving God and praising God, we are loving God with all our hearts.
Jesus’ words, in the Sermon on the Mount, challenge us to be zesty, even salty Christians. It doesn’t mean we have to cover ourselves in lemon juice or use salty language. It means to really love and serve God, fully, with our minds and our hearts.
It is being unafraid to question, to challenge, and to think. It is learning to capture our passion and use it in God’s service.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Spiritual But Not Religious.
Social media, such as Facebook is fascinating. Recently, I asked a question.
The largest 'religious' growth group in the United States right now is a group that calls themselves 'spiritual but not religious.' It strikes me that there is a belief in the divine, leaving the divine undefined. Recognizing there are more groups than Christians, but as a Christian my question is this. Has the failure of Christianity to reach or retain people been a result of a rejection of the Gospel or of Christianity's presentation of the Gospel?
There were many compelling comments that were made. Here are some of them:
As someone who has recently become a member of this growing group, it's not that I do not consider myself a Christian, but I have a serious disconnect with organized religion. I have a very strong relationship with God and I have tried very... hard to live my life based on the teachings of Christ, but during some of the lowest points in my life I have felt rejected by the church rather than lifted up.
I am a long time believer who has been on both sides of the issue--I have embraced Christianity and I have rejected it, on both cases because of how I felt treated in whatever church I was involved with at the time. I am again feeling out of touch with God because of how I feel I am being treated in my church. What really makes this sad is that I just graduated from seminary. It bothers me that I was once so on fire to be in the ministry, but now I hate the thought of setting foot in my church.
When I began identifying myself as "spiritual... but not religious," I did so because I vehemently opposed the actions of the church and the folks that perpetuated anger, judgement, and hate. I also respected the beliefs of practitioners of all religions and didn't want to make a "truth claim." A decade later, I realized that I could participate in a faith practice that felt comfortable to me without judging the faith practice of others. It turns out that spiritual community makes all the difference, for me anyway.
Those that do hateful things in the name of Christ leave a bitter taste in many mouths. As many have evoked, if Jesus came today, he would most likely be in a homeless shelter or jail. Whether one believes him the son of God or a great prophet, he preached what so many of us need to work on today...love your neighbor, do unto others, etc.
I don't think it's a matter of rejection at all but rather an opening up to other points of view. Im no expert, but maybe it's enlightenment itself breaking down the lines drawn between different faiths. I myself believe God (or whate...ver one chooses to call Him) is love. Love is the goal and maybe many are choosing to just pursue the goal without the restrictions imposed by ideology. Concentrations of ideology seem to be a product of isolation. Isolation is becoming more impossible to use as a way to concentrate faith in a path to the real goal.
Simple: biblical literalism and fundamentalism make Christians do and say crazy things. The church is more interested in conversion and doctrinal purity than in helping people ponder the wonder and mystery of the God and the universe (and the teachings of Jesus). Thus, the church often fails to meet spiritual needs.
It is a PR problem. Requiring people to believe things that they know can't be factual a la The Creation Museum. The truth in the Gospels is profound, but insisting that the narrative is "factual" is a deal-breaker for most. The selling ...of the Gospels and Old Testament as fact by the "Church" has so damaged it, that I fear the church as a social institution is in real trouble. Following Jesus instead of rule-making, condemnation, is the only hope to reverse the PR nightmare. Jesus commands us to DO. He doesn't give us a list of things to BELIEVE. GET UP and go, your faith has healed you.
I think it goes beyond liberal and conservative. I have felt ostracized by both ends of the continuum for questioning the way a "good liberal" or a "good conservative" might view things. When Christianity is not being actively persecuted, it seems that more and more cultural baggage gets layered on top.I think the recent anti-intellectualism in Christianity has led to a poor presentation of the Gospel and a degrading understanding of it. Now we have a fundamentalism unable to interact productively with other groups on one end, and the rejectors of fundamentalism who have no standard for developing a coherent worldview on the other end--they know what they don't want to be, but what model do they have remaining?
The opinions are, of course, not exhaustive; they are merely illustrative. Whether we agree or disagree with people’s comments, no one is really wrong. They are responding from their own personal thoughts, feelings, and experiences.
I have been reading and listening to a good bit of people about this and I’ve come to some conclusions.
First is this. The failure is never God’s and can never really be the fault of the Gospel. If the Gospel is truly a reflection of God, it stands as what it is. People may choose to believe it or not believe it, but the Gospel is the Gospel. But if we believe God is perfect, this is not God’s fault.
But, Christianity has some huge faults.
First off, the Gospel may not be the problem, but how the Gospel is represented often is. In another recent poll I asked people if they thought the language of Christianity had gotten more mean spirited. The answer was overwhelmingly ‘yes.’ And it truly has, I believe.
Often when the news media chooses to interview people of faith they choose the most controversial people who often use harsh language on people with whom they disagree or choose to not associate with. There is an old Christian adage that says, “Hate the sin but love the sinner.” I have come to believe it is an adage we can no longer use as it has slipped deeper into the ‘hate’ portion. In the New Testament the Greek word for hate is actually a word used in comparison to something else and not used the way we use it in English. Sadly, Christianity is often seen as a religion of hate rather than love.
Secondly, I was distressed by the number of people who have felt rejected by churches. Somewhere, collectively, Christianity seems to have forgotten that Jesus came to embrace everyone. We begin each Worship service with the words “No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here,’ and we do mean those words. It doesn’t mean, however, we are always successful. There are people who have not felt welcome for a variety of reasons.
The last thing is really a question for people within Christianity. How do we respond? Dallas Willard’s great line, “The system we have now is perfectly designed to produce the results we are now getting,” is totally appropriate. If the results of Christianity right now are producing more people who are ‘spiritual but not religious,’ what do we do now?
The largest 'religious' growth group in the United States right now is a group that calls themselves 'spiritual but not religious.' It strikes me that there is a belief in the divine, leaving the divine undefined. Recognizing there are more groups than Christians, but as a Christian my question is this. Has the failure of Christianity to reach or retain people been a result of a rejection of the Gospel or of Christianity's presentation of the Gospel?
There were many compelling comments that were made. Here are some of them:
As someone who has recently become a member of this growing group, it's not that I do not consider myself a Christian, but I have a serious disconnect with organized religion. I have a very strong relationship with God and I have tried very... hard to live my life based on the teachings of Christ, but during some of the lowest points in my life I have felt rejected by the church rather than lifted up.
I am a long time believer who has been on both sides of the issue--I have embraced Christianity and I have rejected it, on both cases because of how I felt treated in whatever church I was involved with at the time. I am again feeling out of touch with God because of how I feel I am being treated in my church. What really makes this sad is that I just graduated from seminary. It bothers me that I was once so on fire to be in the ministry, but now I hate the thought of setting foot in my church.
When I began identifying myself as "spiritual... but not religious," I did so because I vehemently opposed the actions of the church and the folks that perpetuated anger, judgement, and hate. I also respected the beliefs of practitioners of all religions and didn't want to make a "truth claim." A decade later, I realized that I could participate in a faith practice that felt comfortable to me without judging the faith practice of others. It turns out that spiritual community makes all the difference, for me anyway.
Those that do hateful things in the name of Christ leave a bitter taste in many mouths. As many have evoked, if Jesus came today, he would most likely be in a homeless shelter or jail. Whether one believes him the son of God or a great prophet, he preached what so many of us need to work on today...love your neighbor, do unto others, etc.
I don't think it's a matter of rejection at all but rather an opening up to other points of view. Im no expert, but maybe it's enlightenment itself breaking down the lines drawn between different faiths. I myself believe God (or whate...ver one chooses to call Him) is love. Love is the goal and maybe many are choosing to just pursue the goal without the restrictions imposed by ideology. Concentrations of ideology seem to be a product of isolation. Isolation is becoming more impossible to use as a way to concentrate faith in a path to the real goal.
Simple: biblical literalism and fundamentalism make Christians do and say crazy things. The church is more interested in conversion and doctrinal purity than in helping people ponder the wonder and mystery of the God and the universe (and the teachings of Jesus). Thus, the church often fails to meet spiritual needs.
It is a PR problem. Requiring people to believe things that they know can't be factual a la The Creation Museum. The truth in the Gospels is profound, but insisting that the narrative is "factual" is a deal-breaker for most. The selling ...of the Gospels and Old Testament as fact by the "Church" has so damaged it, that I fear the church as a social institution is in real trouble. Following Jesus instead of rule-making, condemnation, is the only hope to reverse the PR nightmare. Jesus commands us to DO. He doesn't give us a list of things to BELIEVE. GET UP and go, your faith has healed you.
I think it goes beyond liberal and conservative. I have felt ostracized by both ends of the continuum for questioning the way a "good liberal" or a "good conservative" might view things. When Christianity is not being actively persecuted, it seems that more and more cultural baggage gets layered on top.I think the recent anti-intellectualism in Christianity has led to a poor presentation of the Gospel and a degrading understanding of it. Now we have a fundamentalism unable to interact productively with other groups on one end, and the rejectors of fundamentalism who have no standard for developing a coherent worldview on the other end--they know what they don't want to be, but what model do they have remaining?
The opinions are, of course, not exhaustive; they are merely illustrative. Whether we agree or disagree with people’s comments, no one is really wrong. They are responding from their own personal thoughts, feelings, and experiences.
I have been reading and listening to a good bit of people about this and I’ve come to some conclusions.
First is this. The failure is never God’s and can never really be the fault of the Gospel. If the Gospel is truly a reflection of God, it stands as what it is. People may choose to believe it or not believe it, but the Gospel is the Gospel. But if we believe God is perfect, this is not God’s fault.
But, Christianity has some huge faults.
First off, the Gospel may not be the problem, but how the Gospel is represented often is. In another recent poll I asked people if they thought the language of Christianity had gotten more mean spirited. The answer was overwhelmingly ‘yes.’ And it truly has, I believe.
Often when the news media chooses to interview people of faith they choose the most controversial people who often use harsh language on people with whom they disagree or choose to not associate with. There is an old Christian adage that says, “Hate the sin but love the sinner.” I have come to believe it is an adage we can no longer use as it has slipped deeper into the ‘hate’ portion. In the New Testament the Greek word for hate is actually a word used in comparison to something else and not used the way we use it in English. Sadly, Christianity is often seen as a religion of hate rather than love.
Secondly, I was distressed by the number of people who have felt rejected by churches. Somewhere, collectively, Christianity seems to have forgotten that Jesus came to embrace everyone. We begin each Worship service with the words “No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here,’ and we do mean those words. It doesn’t mean, however, we are always successful. There are people who have not felt welcome for a variety of reasons.
The last thing is really a question for people within Christianity. How do we respond? Dallas Willard’s great line, “The system we have now is perfectly designed to produce the results we are now getting,” is totally appropriate. If the results of Christianity right now are producing more people who are ‘spiritual but not religious,’ what do we do now?
Saturday, February 12, 2011
What Would I Cut?
What would I cut?
If they named me King and told me to cut the Federal Budget, here is what I would cut:
• I would cut, by half, Congressional and Senate salaries. In an effort to reduce the terms of these people without having a Constitutional Amendment for term limits, I’d cut their salaries in half to make this more and more about service rather than benefit.
• I would eliminate Congressional pensions. Same reasons as above.
• Cut Congressional staffs by half.
• Cut the White House staff by half.
• Cut the Supreme Court staff by half.
• I would limit Congressional Postage for free except in responses to constituents’ mail.
• Half of all money donated to political campaigns would be allocated to repair and replace infrastructure within the United States which would allow necessary repairs to take place without raising taxes or increasing the debt.
• I would remove all armed forces from Iraq and Afghanistan and using Intelligence agencies and the military, I’d fight terrorism more in specific instances rather than invading nations. We have to stop pretending these wars have not contributed significantly to our current budget crisis.
• I would raise the retirement age to 70. The only way to address the money issues facing Social Security and Medicare is to actually face the issues. The age of 65 was chosen when the vast majority of people did not live to age 65. People can retire earlier if they have pensions, etc., but they cannot collect Federal benefits until age 70 except for in cases of disability.
WWJC? I’m not sure, but I don’t think he’d object to these.
If they named me King and told me to cut the Federal Budget, here is what I would cut:
• I would cut, by half, Congressional and Senate salaries. In an effort to reduce the terms of these people without having a Constitutional Amendment for term limits, I’d cut their salaries in half to make this more and more about service rather than benefit.
• I would eliminate Congressional pensions. Same reasons as above.
• Cut Congressional staffs by half.
• Cut the White House staff by half.
• Cut the Supreme Court staff by half.
• I would limit Congressional Postage for free except in responses to constituents’ mail.
• Half of all money donated to political campaigns would be allocated to repair and replace infrastructure within the United States which would allow necessary repairs to take place without raising taxes or increasing the debt.
• I would remove all armed forces from Iraq and Afghanistan and using Intelligence agencies and the military, I’d fight terrorism more in specific instances rather than invading nations. We have to stop pretending these wars have not contributed significantly to our current budget crisis.
• I would raise the retirement age to 70. The only way to address the money issues facing Social Security and Medicare is to actually face the issues. The age of 65 was chosen when the vast majority of people did not live to age 65. People can retire earlier if they have pensions, etc., but they cannot collect Federal benefits until age 70 except for in cases of disability.
WWJC? I’m not sure, but I don’t think he’d object to these.
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
This is Too Much Fun NOT to Share
LETTER FROM GRANDMA
I Got a letter from Grandma the other day. She wrote:
The other day I went up to a local Christian bookstore and saw a "HONK IF YOU LOVE JESUS" bumper sticker. I was feeling particularly sassy that day because I had just come from a thrilling choir performance, followed by a thunderous prayer meeting, so I bought the sticker and put it on my bumper.
Boy, I'm glad I did! What an uplifting experience that followed!
I was stopped at a red light at a busy intersection, just lost in thought about the Lord and how good He is... and I didn't notice that the light had changed. It is a good thing someone else loves Jesus because if he hadn't honked, I'd never have noticed! I found that LOTS of people love Jesus!
Why, while I was sitting there, the guy behind started honking like crazy, and then he leaned out of his window and screamed, "For the love of GOD! GO! GO! JESUS CHRIST, GO!" What an exuberant cheerleader he was for Jesus!
Everyone started honking! I just leaned out of my window and started waving and smiling at all these loving people. I even honked my horn a few times to share in the love!
I saw another guy waving in a funny way with only his middle finger stuck up in the air. Then I asked my teenage grandson in the back seat what that meant, he said that it was probably a Hawaiian good luck sign or something. Well, I've never met anyone from Hawaii, so I leaned out the window and gave him the good luck sign back. My grandson burst out laughing... why, even he was enjoying this religious (Toronto) experience!
A couple of the people were so caught up in the joy of the moment that they got out of their cars and started walking towards me. I bet they wanted to pray or ask what church attended, but this is when I noticed the light had changed. So, I waved to all my sisters and brothers grinning, and drove on through the intersection.
I was the only car that got through the intersection before the light changed again and I felt kind of sad that I had to leave them after all the love we had shared, so I slowed the car down, leaned out the window and gave them all the Hawaiian good luck sign one last time as I drove away.
Praise the Lord for such wonderful folks!
Grandma
I Got a letter from Grandma the other day. She wrote:
The other day I went up to a local Christian bookstore and saw a "HONK IF YOU LOVE JESUS" bumper sticker. I was feeling particularly sassy that day because I had just come from a thrilling choir performance, followed by a thunderous prayer meeting, so I bought the sticker and put it on my bumper.
Boy, I'm glad I did! What an uplifting experience that followed!
I was stopped at a red light at a busy intersection, just lost in thought about the Lord and how good He is... and I didn't notice that the light had changed. It is a good thing someone else loves Jesus because if he hadn't honked, I'd never have noticed! I found that LOTS of people love Jesus!
Why, while I was sitting there, the guy behind started honking like crazy, and then he leaned out of his window and screamed, "For the love of GOD! GO! GO! JESUS CHRIST, GO!" What an exuberant cheerleader he was for Jesus!
Everyone started honking! I just leaned out of my window and started waving and smiling at all these loving people. I even honked my horn a few times to share in the love!
I saw another guy waving in a funny way with only his middle finger stuck up in the air. Then I asked my teenage grandson in the back seat what that meant, he said that it was probably a Hawaiian good luck sign or something. Well, I've never met anyone from Hawaii, so I leaned out the window and gave him the good luck sign back. My grandson burst out laughing... why, even he was enjoying this religious (Toronto) experience!
A couple of the people were so caught up in the joy of the moment that they got out of their cars and started walking towards me. I bet they wanted to pray or ask what church attended, but this is when I noticed the light had changed. So, I waved to all my sisters and brothers grinning, and drove on through the intersection.
I was the only car that got through the intersection before the light changed again and I felt kind of sad that I had to leave them after all the love we had shared, so I slowed the car down, leaned out the window and gave them all the Hawaiian good luck sign one last time as I drove away.
Praise the Lord for such wonderful folks!
Grandma
Monday, November 22, 2010
Advent Soon Begins!
A Nativity Scene was erected in a church yard.
During the night someone came across this scene.
An abandoned dog was looking for a comfortable, protected place to sleep. He chose baby Jesus as his comfort.
No one had the heart to send him away so he was there all night.
We should all have the good sense of this dog and curl up in Jesus' lap from time to time.
This is too good not to share.
No one mentioned that the dog breed is a "Shepherd!"
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
The Elections Are Over! Thanks Be to God!
I am so happy the elections are over. Congratulations to those who won their elections yesterday. Whether our choices win or lose is less important than embracing those who did win and keeping them in our prayers. My great prayer is that all those who serve our nation choose nation over party and always attempt to do the right thing. And be honest. Please be honest. Please let the lying season be over.
A piece of historical reality that many people fail to realize is that while the United States is considered to be a young nation, our system of government is amongst the oldest and enduring systems in the world. The vast majority of nations have had major changes in government long after ours. We have our bi-annual 'revolutions' called elections and those elections often change the course of the nation.
Several things I've observed are these:
It is difficult to get really good people to run for office. It is expensive, grueling, and painful for someone to listen to the attacks on you. I found myself cringing at the attacks people launched on each other. Most candidates were guilty of this; some more than others. I can't imagine having to endure the slander and vitriol hurled.
Being the President is a really dreadful job. I guess it has its perks, but in listening to an interview of George W. Bush today and watching Barack Obama at the press conference, being the President has its own special agony. No matter what you choose to do or not do, you will be vilified for it. Yuch.
It also reminds me of something about myself. So many speak of 'no compromise' and being, by nature, a consensus builder, I find such speech uncomfortable. Maybe that's what drives governments but I don't find it something I'd be comfortable with. I, for one, would love to see everyone sit down and actually try and solve the problems of our nation together instead of hurling insults at each other.
But that's just me.
A piece of historical reality that many people fail to realize is that while the United States is considered to be a young nation, our system of government is amongst the oldest and enduring systems in the world. The vast majority of nations have had major changes in government long after ours. We have our bi-annual 'revolutions' called elections and those elections often change the course of the nation.
Several things I've observed are these:
It is difficult to get really good people to run for office. It is expensive, grueling, and painful for someone to listen to the attacks on you. I found myself cringing at the attacks people launched on each other. Most candidates were guilty of this; some more than others. I can't imagine having to endure the slander and vitriol hurled.
Being the President is a really dreadful job. I guess it has its perks, but in listening to an interview of George W. Bush today and watching Barack Obama at the press conference, being the President has its own special agony. No matter what you choose to do or not do, you will be vilified for it. Yuch.
It also reminds me of something about myself. So many speak of 'no compromise' and being, by nature, a consensus builder, I find such speech uncomfortable. Maybe that's what drives governments but I don't find it something I'd be comfortable with. I, for one, would love to see everyone sit down and actually try and solve the problems of our nation together instead of hurling insults at each other.
But that's just me.
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
What Disappointments Me About This Year’s Election
I decided to write this before the results are in. I am incredibly disappointed in this election cycle and it has little to do with the results.
Here is why.
First off, there seems to have been epic lying and dishonesty in this year’s election. People were assaulted by Republican commercials stating that there Democratic opponent voted to reduce Medicare. Actually, the healthcare plan voted to increase Medicare but was removing funding from privatized Medicare Advantage. The Democrats, not to be undone, were equally bogus with their 23% sales tax ads leaving out the little detail of this tax being in lieu of other taxes. The lies went on and on and on and there are no innocents in this one.
Secondly, the smearing and the defense of smearing. “Oh, there have always been smear campaigns.” Perhaps there have always been smear campaigns but now we have mail, Facebook, E-mail, and endless phone calls telling us that our opponent is the worst person who ever walked the planet. In this part of the country no one was willing to sink deeper and dirtier than Jack Conway in Kentucky. His ‘Aqua Buddha’ ad was disgusting.
Thirdly, there are some really bad candidates. The people of Nevada have to be really, really angry at Harry Reid to consider voting for a Sharron Angle who may be one of the all time worst major party candidates in the history of the universe. Of course, she is running at the same time as Alvin Greene in South Carolina so this may actually be a toss up. If you were to ask, I’d vote for Christine O’Donnell over either of these two. If I lived in Kentucky I’d vote for “None of the Above” in the Senate election. In my own district Todd Young’s major campaign platform is that he’s not Baron Hill. He made me long for the days of millionaire Mike Sodrel who is at least from here and seems to be a sincere man.
Fourth, there is really bad party leadership. I have not been a huge fan of Nancy Pelosi. She does get things done, but she’s a diehard partisan and ideologue. I tend to see myself as a consensus builder and a pragmatist so I have an innate distrust of partisans and ideologues. I have to believe the Democrats could have done better than her. Sadly, the quality will not improve when the balance of power shifts. John Boehner shares two of Nancy Pelosi’s worst qualities. He’s a diehard partisan and ideologue. Harry Reid was terrible and if he loses the election and the Democrats maintain control of the Senate, one of the people who wants to be the new Senate Majority Leader is Chuck Schumer from New York. God help us all. If the Republicans gain control the new leader will be Mitch McConnell. God help us all.
Fifth, in an era when things are very difficult and solutions need to take place, more and more ideologues win elections and pragmatic people are cast to the sidelines. I do not trust ideologues to solve problems. They busily try and follow the same path and plan no matter what the world is doing around them. It’s nuts!
Lastly, we still have a major healthcare crisis; we still have a lot of people who do not have jobs or are underemployed. Our national infrastructure if rotting away and we will have major education issues. We still have a major presence in Iraq; are fighting a war in Afghanistan, and terrorism is still a major problem around the world. Despite a lot of rhetoric and posturing by both sides, no one seems to be seriously discussing real solutions to real problems.
Maybe next time....
Here is why.
First off, there seems to have been epic lying and dishonesty in this year’s election. People were assaulted by Republican commercials stating that there Democratic opponent voted to reduce Medicare. Actually, the healthcare plan voted to increase Medicare but was removing funding from privatized Medicare Advantage. The Democrats, not to be undone, were equally bogus with their 23% sales tax ads leaving out the little detail of this tax being in lieu of other taxes. The lies went on and on and on and there are no innocents in this one.
Secondly, the smearing and the defense of smearing. “Oh, there have always been smear campaigns.” Perhaps there have always been smear campaigns but now we have mail, Facebook, E-mail, and endless phone calls telling us that our opponent is the worst person who ever walked the planet. In this part of the country no one was willing to sink deeper and dirtier than Jack Conway in Kentucky. His ‘Aqua Buddha’ ad was disgusting.
Thirdly, there are some really bad candidates. The people of Nevada have to be really, really angry at Harry Reid to consider voting for a Sharron Angle who may be one of the all time worst major party candidates in the history of the universe. Of course, she is running at the same time as Alvin Greene in South Carolina so this may actually be a toss up. If you were to ask, I’d vote for Christine O’Donnell over either of these two. If I lived in Kentucky I’d vote for “None of the Above” in the Senate election. In my own district Todd Young’s major campaign platform is that he’s not Baron Hill. He made me long for the days of millionaire Mike Sodrel who is at least from here and seems to be a sincere man.
Fourth, there is really bad party leadership. I have not been a huge fan of Nancy Pelosi. She does get things done, but she’s a diehard partisan and ideologue. I tend to see myself as a consensus builder and a pragmatist so I have an innate distrust of partisans and ideologues. I have to believe the Democrats could have done better than her. Sadly, the quality will not improve when the balance of power shifts. John Boehner shares two of Nancy Pelosi’s worst qualities. He’s a diehard partisan and ideologue. Harry Reid was terrible and if he loses the election and the Democrats maintain control of the Senate, one of the people who wants to be the new Senate Majority Leader is Chuck Schumer from New York. God help us all. If the Republicans gain control the new leader will be Mitch McConnell. God help us all.
Fifth, in an era when things are very difficult and solutions need to take place, more and more ideologues win elections and pragmatic people are cast to the sidelines. I do not trust ideologues to solve problems. They busily try and follow the same path and plan no matter what the world is doing around them. It’s nuts!
Lastly, we still have a major healthcare crisis; we still have a lot of people who do not have jobs or are underemployed. Our national infrastructure if rotting away and we will have major education issues. We still have a major presence in Iraq; are fighting a war in Afghanistan, and terrorism is still a major problem around the world. Despite a lot of rhetoric and posturing by both sides, no one seems to be seriously discussing real solutions to real problems.
Maybe next time....
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Sermon for September 26, 2010
Profiting from the Prophets----Of Dry Bones Dancing
Text: Ezekiel 37:1-14
September 16, 2010
Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo
Sometimes we read about things in the Bible and what you see is what you get.
Jesus turns what into wine and the story is about Jesus turning water into wine. We can discuss it and speculate as to the why's and the wherefore's, but ultimately the story is pretty straightforward.
Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and, again, it's about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.
But then we have this very familiar passage from Ezekiel; the valley of the dry bones. God commands Ezekiel to preach unto the dry bones so that they might be reformed into bodies and then given life. And Ezekiel does what God has commanded him to do and the bones go back into bodies and become alive again.
The passage seems to indicate that these dry bones were very old; people who had died, probably in a huge battle many years earlier. If taken totally at face value they are brought back to life and Ezekiel is left standing there with a huge army in front of him; for no apparent reason. This would seem to indicate that this passage means something symbolic.
The trick is trying to determine what this actually does mean.
I read one person’s take on it. He said that it was a prophesy that Israel would be brought make to great might and have a great army, etc. He went on to indicate this is why American foreign policy must always favor Israel so that this prophesy would one day come to pass. Without getting too technical here, I can’t fathom why God would be giving Ezekiel a prophesy to determine American foreign policy in the 21st century. To me there had to be a deeper, more theological rationale.
To me the dry bones symbolize people of faith who keep the bones of religion alive, but lose everything else. From this perspective, I can see a great deal of this prophesy being played out over and over again.
The dry bones symbolized people of faith who keep the bones of religion alive and lose everything else.
There is a difference between faith and religion. Faith is our actual belief in God; religion is how we practice that belief. Faith is what we have in our hearts and minds and religion is the structure in which we live out that faith.
It can be said that faith without religion, or some sort of structure, is inclined toward chaos. Over the years I have heard numerous people make the statement that they don’t need the church to Worship God. Theoretically this is true, but I live by an adage that we really do need the church to grow in faith. It is very difficult to maintain the discipline and the presence of others to grow in faith.
But having said all that, the issue of the dry bones speaks of religion without faith.
One of the issues of ancient Judaism, an issue that was central to Jesus’ ongoing people with the Pharisees, was this very issue. It was a religion without faith. Judaism had been reduced from being a vital, faithful response to God into an organization of rules and laws. It had morphed into a religion without faith and Jesus was attempting to renew it.
It is, of course, easy to say that Judaism in Jesus’ day and age had difficulties, but it can be said of Christianity here and now. Christianity is, at its core, a movement, and not an institution. The biggest problem Christianity has had over the centuries has not been Jesus, has not been the message of Jesus, but has been the institutional church. Over the centuries on Church History there are stories that plague virtually every tradition within Christianity about something that the Christian Church was doing wrong.
In the Amish tradition the second most revered book of all, behind the Bible, is the Book of Martyrs. The Amish, who come out of the Anabaptist tradition, read about their forebears in faith persecuted and killed for their beliefs. And there are a lot of them; and mostly all of them were persecuted and killed by other Christians. The institutional church got in the way of faith. When we allow that to happen, the dry bones show up.
A second thing that leads to dry bones is when faith loses its heart. Unless we have a heart for God and a heart for God’s people, our faith drys up into dry bones.
Having heart is important.
One of my favorite stories is the story of two brothers, one very sensitive and one less so. The very sensitive brother went away and left his dog with his less than sensitive brother. After a few days he called home and asked his brother how the dog was.
The less than sensitive brother said, “The dog died.”
The very sensitive brother said to him, “Oh no. I’m crushed and you just made it worse! You need to learn to be more sensitive to give a person warning.”
The other brother said, “I don’t understand. What did you want me to do?”
Well first, the sensitive brother said, “When I ask how the dog is, you say, ‘Well, he’s not looking so good. I’m going to take it to the vet tomorrow.’”
“When I call back the next day, you say, ‘the vet kept the dog and said it’s not looking very good,’ then the next day you say, ‘The vet did everything he could, but the dog died.’”
“Okay,” said the other brother. “I’ll be more careful next time.”
“Great,” said the sensitive brother. “So how’s Mom?”
“Well,” the other brother said, “She’s not looking so good, so I’m going to take her to the doctor tomorrow.”
You probably get the point. Sensitivity and heart are important. And they really are! If a people of faith have no heart, we miss the heart of God.
We begin each Worship Service with the words, “No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.” In theory, those words are easy to say. In theory, every church since the beginning of time believes they say those words. We all want to, deep down, say those words.
But when we say those words we open ourselves up to saying ‘yes,’ to everyone. And everyone is a lot of different types of people.
St. Marks has attempted, over the years, to be a ‘yes’ kind of church. When this church was founded over 170 years ago everyone was German and the Worship Service was in German. At some point, in this church’s history, in order to welcome people who weren’t German, they had to stop doing the Worship Service in German. They did.
When we started to do the Soup Kitchen and later, the Clothes Closet, it meant opening our doors to a lot of different folks. It was a big ‘yes.’ A lot of churches don’t want those folks in their building. They’d never tell you that, of course, like we wouldn’t have said it years ago. But when you open the building you open your hearts and say ‘yes’ to people very different from most of us most of the time.
The United Church of Christ and St. Marks made intentional efforts to welcome people who are gay as they are. Every church welcomes gay people, but a lot of churches escort gay folks to classes where they are going to get ‘cured’ from being gay as if it were a disease which needed to be cured. Everyone is welcome, as long as they are willing to be ‘fixed,’ even if they didn’t consider themselves broken. Even if God doesn’t consider them as broken.
The United Church of Christ was the first mainline Christian denomination to determine that ‘gay’ was not a disease and people who are gay are welcome. We, as a denomination, and then as a church, decided to say ‘yes,’ to everyone, and welcome everyone as they are. There are no distinctions between any person here. We say ‘yes’ to everyone. That is having heart.
The last thing is equally crucial. We become dry bones when we no longer see our intellect as an important component to our faith.
Michael Jinkins, the new President of the Presbyterian Seminary in Louisville recently gave a convocation address entitled, “The Life of the Mind in the Service of God: Why a Thinking Faith Still Matters.” He begins by citing the columnist Nicholas Kristof who bemoaned a loss of an intellectually rigorous faith. Kristof makes the observation that “The heart is a wonderful organ; but so is the brain.”
Jinkins cites Thomas Long, a preaching professor, who made the observation that the greatest heresy of modern day Christianity is not atheism, but superficiality.
In recent years there has been a resurgence in atheism. Most of the arguments made for atheism are about how superficial and illogical Christianity is.
People like Bill Maher made the movie Religulous, in which he interviewed religious people and made fun of them. Christopher Hitchens wrote the best selling God is Not Great in which he blamed virtually every ill in the world on people who believe in God. God, he argues, is not real.
Both authors, and many others like them, do the same thing. They take the most simplistic arguments made by Christians and Christianity and put holes in them. They attack the most superficial arguments and use their own superficial arguments to refute people of faith.
Interestingly enough, Maher and Hitchens do the same exact thing as they people they are critical of. They use superficial examples and interview superficial people who give them superficial answers. They attack a shallow faith with their own shallow arguments.
But Christianity, at its core, is not a superficial faith. Actually, no world religion really is superficial. Any religion is at its best when it is vigorous intellectually and challenges the minds of people. Jinkins makes a great statement when he overses that the greatest antidote to such people as Maher and Hitchens is not retrenching ourselves against their ideas, but engaging their overly simplified and often silly statements with far more sophisticated, self-searching, and even self-critical observations.
A non-thinking critical faith is a superficial faith, and a faith that leads to dry bones.
The philosopher Socrates once said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” It can easily be said that an unexamined faith is not worthy of God.
This passage from Ezekiel is a passage that challenges us deeply. We are either a living, vital people, living a living and vital faith filled with heart and mind; or we are dry bones. There is no happy medium on this. God created us to be a people of faith; and so we are challenged to have that faith. And God gave us hearts and minds and challenges to use both in celebration and faithfulness.
Text: Ezekiel 37:1-14
September 16, 2010
Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo
Sometimes we read about things in the Bible and what you see is what you get.
Jesus turns what into wine and the story is about Jesus turning water into wine. We can discuss it and speculate as to the why's and the wherefore's, but ultimately the story is pretty straightforward.
Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and, again, it's about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.
But then we have this very familiar passage from Ezekiel; the valley of the dry bones. God commands Ezekiel to preach unto the dry bones so that they might be reformed into bodies and then given life. And Ezekiel does what God has commanded him to do and the bones go back into bodies and become alive again.
The passage seems to indicate that these dry bones were very old; people who had died, probably in a huge battle many years earlier. If taken totally at face value they are brought back to life and Ezekiel is left standing there with a huge army in front of him; for no apparent reason. This would seem to indicate that this passage means something symbolic.
The trick is trying to determine what this actually does mean.
I read one person’s take on it. He said that it was a prophesy that Israel would be brought make to great might and have a great army, etc. He went on to indicate this is why American foreign policy must always favor Israel so that this prophesy would one day come to pass. Without getting too technical here, I can’t fathom why God would be giving Ezekiel a prophesy to determine American foreign policy in the 21st century. To me there had to be a deeper, more theological rationale.
To me the dry bones symbolize people of faith who keep the bones of religion alive, but lose everything else. From this perspective, I can see a great deal of this prophesy being played out over and over again.
The dry bones symbolized people of faith who keep the bones of religion alive and lose everything else.
There is a difference between faith and religion. Faith is our actual belief in God; religion is how we practice that belief. Faith is what we have in our hearts and minds and religion is the structure in which we live out that faith.
It can be said that faith without religion, or some sort of structure, is inclined toward chaos. Over the years I have heard numerous people make the statement that they don’t need the church to Worship God. Theoretically this is true, but I live by an adage that we really do need the church to grow in faith. It is very difficult to maintain the discipline and the presence of others to grow in faith.
But having said all that, the issue of the dry bones speaks of religion without faith.
One of the issues of ancient Judaism, an issue that was central to Jesus’ ongoing people with the Pharisees, was this very issue. It was a religion without faith. Judaism had been reduced from being a vital, faithful response to God into an organization of rules and laws. It had morphed into a religion without faith and Jesus was attempting to renew it.
It is, of course, easy to say that Judaism in Jesus’ day and age had difficulties, but it can be said of Christianity here and now. Christianity is, at its core, a movement, and not an institution. The biggest problem Christianity has had over the centuries has not been Jesus, has not been the message of Jesus, but has been the institutional church. Over the centuries on Church History there are stories that plague virtually every tradition within Christianity about something that the Christian Church was doing wrong.
In the Amish tradition the second most revered book of all, behind the Bible, is the Book of Martyrs. The Amish, who come out of the Anabaptist tradition, read about their forebears in faith persecuted and killed for their beliefs. And there are a lot of them; and mostly all of them were persecuted and killed by other Christians. The institutional church got in the way of faith. When we allow that to happen, the dry bones show up.
A second thing that leads to dry bones is when faith loses its heart. Unless we have a heart for God and a heart for God’s people, our faith drys up into dry bones.
Having heart is important.
One of my favorite stories is the story of two brothers, one very sensitive and one less so. The very sensitive brother went away and left his dog with his less than sensitive brother. After a few days he called home and asked his brother how the dog was.
The less than sensitive brother said, “The dog died.”
The very sensitive brother said to him, “Oh no. I’m crushed and you just made it worse! You need to learn to be more sensitive to give a person warning.”
The other brother said, “I don’t understand. What did you want me to do?”
Well first, the sensitive brother said, “When I ask how the dog is, you say, ‘Well, he’s not looking so good. I’m going to take it to the vet tomorrow.’”
“When I call back the next day, you say, ‘the vet kept the dog and said it’s not looking very good,’ then the next day you say, ‘The vet did everything he could, but the dog died.’”
“Okay,” said the other brother. “I’ll be more careful next time.”
“Great,” said the sensitive brother. “So how’s Mom?”
“Well,” the other brother said, “She’s not looking so good, so I’m going to take her to the doctor tomorrow.”
You probably get the point. Sensitivity and heart are important. And they really are! If a people of faith have no heart, we miss the heart of God.
We begin each Worship Service with the words, “No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.” In theory, those words are easy to say. In theory, every church since the beginning of time believes they say those words. We all want to, deep down, say those words.
But when we say those words we open ourselves up to saying ‘yes,’ to everyone. And everyone is a lot of different types of people.
St. Marks has attempted, over the years, to be a ‘yes’ kind of church. When this church was founded over 170 years ago everyone was German and the Worship Service was in German. At some point, in this church’s history, in order to welcome people who weren’t German, they had to stop doing the Worship Service in German. They did.
When we started to do the Soup Kitchen and later, the Clothes Closet, it meant opening our doors to a lot of different folks. It was a big ‘yes.’ A lot of churches don’t want those folks in their building. They’d never tell you that, of course, like we wouldn’t have said it years ago. But when you open the building you open your hearts and say ‘yes’ to people very different from most of us most of the time.
The United Church of Christ and St. Marks made intentional efforts to welcome people who are gay as they are. Every church welcomes gay people, but a lot of churches escort gay folks to classes where they are going to get ‘cured’ from being gay as if it were a disease which needed to be cured. Everyone is welcome, as long as they are willing to be ‘fixed,’ even if they didn’t consider themselves broken. Even if God doesn’t consider them as broken.
The United Church of Christ was the first mainline Christian denomination to determine that ‘gay’ was not a disease and people who are gay are welcome. We, as a denomination, and then as a church, decided to say ‘yes,’ to everyone, and welcome everyone as they are. There are no distinctions between any person here. We say ‘yes’ to everyone. That is having heart.
The last thing is equally crucial. We become dry bones when we no longer see our intellect as an important component to our faith.
Michael Jinkins, the new President of the Presbyterian Seminary in Louisville recently gave a convocation address entitled, “The Life of the Mind in the Service of God: Why a Thinking Faith Still Matters.” He begins by citing the columnist Nicholas Kristof who bemoaned a loss of an intellectually rigorous faith. Kristof makes the observation that “The heart is a wonderful organ; but so is the brain.”
Jinkins cites Thomas Long, a preaching professor, who made the observation that the greatest heresy of modern day Christianity is not atheism, but superficiality.
In recent years there has been a resurgence in atheism. Most of the arguments made for atheism are about how superficial and illogical Christianity is.
People like Bill Maher made the movie Religulous, in which he interviewed religious people and made fun of them. Christopher Hitchens wrote the best selling God is Not Great in which he blamed virtually every ill in the world on people who believe in God. God, he argues, is not real.
Both authors, and many others like them, do the same thing. They take the most simplistic arguments made by Christians and Christianity and put holes in them. They attack the most superficial arguments and use their own superficial arguments to refute people of faith.
Interestingly enough, Maher and Hitchens do the same exact thing as they people they are critical of. They use superficial examples and interview superficial people who give them superficial answers. They attack a shallow faith with their own shallow arguments.
But Christianity, at its core, is not a superficial faith. Actually, no world religion really is superficial. Any religion is at its best when it is vigorous intellectually and challenges the minds of people. Jinkins makes a great statement when he overses that the greatest antidote to such people as Maher and Hitchens is not retrenching ourselves against their ideas, but engaging their overly simplified and often silly statements with far more sophisticated, self-searching, and even self-critical observations.
A non-thinking critical faith is a superficial faith, and a faith that leads to dry bones.
The philosopher Socrates once said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” It can easily be said that an unexamined faith is not worthy of God.
This passage from Ezekiel is a passage that challenges us deeply. We are either a living, vital people, living a living and vital faith filled with heart and mind; or we are dry bones. There is no happy medium on this. God created us to be a people of faith; and so we are challenged to have that faith. And God gave us hearts and minds and challenges to use both in celebration and faithfulness.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Thursday, September 09, 2010
The Price of Religious Freedom
Most denominational clergy are ordained after scrutiny from their respective denominations after having received a Bachelor's Degree and a 90 credit Master of Divinity degree. Religious freedom indicates, however, that any group of people can start a church and clergy can be ordained by a group of people within that church or receive mail order certificates of ordination. People can start their own churches and set their own belief patterns. As a result, unlike physicians or attorneys who have a standard of education that everyone must have, clergy do not. We live with this because of religious freedom. It is better to have the freedom to live like this than it is to not have this freedom.
Here is what else if means. If people want to build an Islamic Center in downtown Manhattan, blocks away from Ground Zero, they can. They have as much a right to do this as the people from Westboro Baptist Church have to protest at funerals because other Christians happen to believe Jesus loving everyone, and if some fool in Florida wants to burn the Quran, he also has that right.
The right to do something, of course, does not mean that one ought to do something. There are some things that are ethically dreadful that people have the right to do. There is some practice of religion that is deplorable and even objectionable to most people. Religious freedom is worth all this, however, because it enables each of us to practice our faith (or not) the way we so choose.
Ponder for a moment. We ban a mosque. That means when a Baptist Church wants to open a congregation we say, "No, because Westboro Baptist Church calls themselves Baptist and they are dreadful." The fact that Westboro is not representative of most Baptist Churches would be lost. The move goes further when we begin to believe we can ban ALL churches because, well, we can.
The price of religious freedom is that we live with stuff we don't like so that everyone has the right to their own faith. The price is actually pretty high, but, I believe, well worth it.
Here is what else if means. If people want to build an Islamic Center in downtown Manhattan, blocks away from Ground Zero, they can. They have as much a right to do this as the people from Westboro Baptist Church have to protest at funerals because other Christians happen to believe Jesus loving everyone, and if some fool in Florida wants to burn the Quran, he also has that right.
The right to do something, of course, does not mean that one ought to do something. There are some things that are ethically dreadful that people have the right to do. There is some practice of religion that is deplorable and even objectionable to most people. Religious freedom is worth all this, however, because it enables each of us to practice our faith (or not) the way we so choose.
Ponder for a moment. We ban a mosque. That means when a Baptist Church wants to open a congregation we say, "No, because Westboro Baptist Church calls themselves Baptist and they are dreadful." The fact that Westboro is not representative of most Baptist Churches would be lost. The move goes further when we begin to believe we can ban ALL churches because, well, we can.
The price of religious freedom is that we live with stuff we don't like so that everyone has the right to their own faith. The price is actually pretty high, but, I believe, well worth it.
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
A Loss of Faith in Institutions II Refinding Faith in Institutions----The Government
The upcoming elections are going to be interesting, but it’s certainly not something to relish. Sadly, many of the people running are no great shakes.
The people of Nevada have a choice between an incumbent Senator who will say and do anything to keep his job. It’s very difficult to see him as a man of great convictions and he was a surefire loser in the upcoming election. He has a burst of hope, however, because the Republican nominee is pretty fair out there. There are no good choices in Nevada.
Barbara Boxer is running for re-election in California against Carly Fiorina. Boxer’s career has been the definition of mediocrity; and people at Hewlett Packard, where Carly was the CEO are quick to tell everyone what a disaster she was in that role. No good choices there.
The House of Representatives may easily change hands from the very partisan Nancy Pelosi to the very partisan John Boehner.
And this is just to name a few. We will all experience the joy and wonder of modern technology as mud and manure are flung far and wide around our great land. All of this brings me to some points.
First is this. There is a reason candidates throw mud and manure. Generally the person who throws the must mud and the most manure, and makes it stick on his or her opponent, wins the election. Dirty campaigns and dirty tricks are used because they work.
The problem is that the winner himself or herself, wins, covered in manure and mud and with the label that he or she was even nastier than his or her opponent. Off they go to Washington, DC lacking a great deal of respect. And, of course, when they arrive in our nation’s Capital, the same thing goes on. In time there is an erosion of trust for these people and it impacts everyone. Why would people respect a government that looks like a mud pit and smells like a pig’s stye?
Add to this how we deal with Presidents. I’ll use the last two as examples.
Whether one liked or disliked President George W. Bush he was demonized on a regular basis. Many, me included, did not agree him and allowed that disagreement to fester into dislike and often into ridicule.
Many carried it way too far. I believe, fervently, that ALL Presidents are patriots. No one would put the amount of energy, angst, and personal danger they put into being President if they had any questions about their own personal love of nation. As a result, I also believe most every President does act on what he (hopefully one day soon she!), believes is right for the nation. Bush was called a traitor, a fascist, a Nazi, etc., on a regular basis. As a result he was so vilified that people stopped taking him seriously. How can one respect a villain?
Much the same is taking place with President Obama. He, like his predecessor, is demonized on a regular basis. Whether the overtones are racial, religious, or ideological, the ending result is much the same. Again, like ALL Presidents, he is a patriot and regularly accused of not loving America and is regularly called a socialist, a Nazi, and a fascist. And, like his predecessor (and others before him), he becomes so vilified that people begin to not take him seriously. Again, how can one respect a villain?
So, where does this leave us?
It leaves us with many people who hold extreme positions and people with demonstrated incompetence as out leaders. This does not reflect, everyone, of course, but a growing number. It also leaves us with people who are callous and ruthless in keeping their own jobs and keeping power for their party; or getting power back from the other party. In short, we are not sending our best and our brightest to our nation’s capital because our best and our brightest have too much dignity, ability, and self-respect to go there.
It is very difficult to respect institutions when we demonize the people in them and the people in them make it so easy to do because they are busily demonizing one another and being demonized by people who hate them.
As a result, the re-finding of faith in institutions begins with us. Who we choose as our leaders, and how we tolerate them to behave is on us. Until we expect and demand more, we will get what we have.
The people of Nevada have a choice between an incumbent Senator who will say and do anything to keep his job. It’s very difficult to see him as a man of great convictions and he was a surefire loser in the upcoming election. He has a burst of hope, however, because the Republican nominee is pretty fair out there. There are no good choices in Nevada.
Barbara Boxer is running for re-election in California against Carly Fiorina. Boxer’s career has been the definition of mediocrity; and people at Hewlett Packard, where Carly was the CEO are quick to tell everyone what a disaster she was in that role. No good choices there.
The House of Representatives may easily change hands from the very partisan Nancy Pelosi to the very partisan John Boehner.
And this is just to name a few. We will all experience the joy and wonder of modern technology as mud and manure are flung far and wide around our great land. All of this brings me to some points.
First is this. There is a reason candidates throw mud and manure. Generally the person who throws the must mud and the most manure, and makes it stick on his or her opponent, wins the election. Dirty campaigns and dirty tricks are used because they work.
The problem is that the winner himself or herself, wins, covered in manure and mud and with the label that he or she was even nastier than his or her opponent. Off they go to Washington, DC lacking a great deal of respect. And, of course, when they arrive in our nation’s Capital, the same thing goes on. In time there is an erosion of trust for these people and it impacts everyone. Why would people respect a government that looks like a mud pit and smells like a pig’s stye?
Add to this how we deal with Presidents. I’ll use the last two as examples.
Whether one liked or disliked President George W. Bush he was demonized on a regular basis. Many, me included, did not agree him and allowed that disagreement to fester into dislike and often into ridicule.
Many carried it way too far. I believe, fervently, that ALL Presidents are patriots. No one would put the amount of energy, angst, and personal danger they put into being President if they had any questions about their own personal love of nation. As a result, I also believe most every President does act on what he (hopefully one day soon she!), believes is right for the nation. Bush was called a traitor, a fascist, a Nazi, etc., on a regular basis. As a result he was so vilified that people stopped taking him seriously. How can one respect a villain?
Much the same is taking place with President Obama. He, like his predecessor, is demonized on a regular basis. Whether the overtones are racial, religious, or ideological, the ending result is much the same. Again, like ALL Presidents, he is a patriot and regularly accused of not loving America and is regularly called a socialist, a Nazi, and a fascist. And, like his predecessor (and others before him), he becomes so vilified that people begin to not take him seriously. Again, how can one respect a villain?
So, where does this leave us?
It leaves us with many people who hold extreme positions and people with demonstrated incompetence as out leaders. This does not reflect, everyone, of course, but a growing number. It also leaves us with people who are callous and ruthless in keeping their own jobs and keeping power for their party; or getting power back from the other party. In short, we are not sending our best and our brightest to our nation’s capital because our best and our brightest have too much dignity, ability, and self-respect to go there.
It is very difficult to respect institutions when we demonize the people in them and the people in them make it so easy to do because they are busily demonizing one another and being demonized by people who hate them.
As a result, the re-finding of faith in institutions begins with us. Who we choose as our leaders, and how we tolerate them to behave is on us. Until we expect and demand more, we will get what we have.
Monday, August 30, 2010
A Loss of Faith in Institutions I
There is something striking taking place that is, at this point, under-reported. It does not take much to connect the dots to come to this conclusion as it is painfully obvious that people have lost faith in institutions.
There is anger toward our leaders in Washington, D.C. This is not new. People were angry at the government and tossed Republicans out of power. President Bush left office with very low approval numbers and Vice President Cheney was a little less popular than phlegm when he left office. There was a major power shift in Congress. There was a rebellion on those in power. We were in two wars with uncertain outcomes and the economy was bad.
Times have changed but people’s anger has not subsided. President Obama’s approval ratings have dropped and Congress is as beloved now, in Democratic control as it was in Republican control. Combat troops have left Iraq but over 50,000 American soldiers remain there and no one really knows the future of Iraq. Afghanistan remains a mess and the economy is still bad. The strategies for dealing with the economy changed, but far too many people remain without jobs.
People are angry. Democrats rallied and supported the non-establishment candidate, Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton and followed this through to the election.
People have lost faith in government in a big way. Both parties have attempted to take advantage of this, but if either party had the courage to really deal with this they would find that the problem is that both parties have failed the country miserably. Ideologies are not principles; ideologies are simply ideologies that, when followed blindly lead into an abyss. As our political parties become increasingly ideological, they become increasingly less pragmatic and increasingly less interested in serving people.
People have lost faith because they are being sold a bill of good by both the Democrats and the Republicans. Both parties are living by the same credo: Party First!
But, alas, there is more. People have also lost interest in church. Increasingly people are identifying themselves as atheists or spiritual but not religious. By the end of the next decade I suspect that at least half the churches in existence across the country will have closed. Many will have run out of people and money and will cease to exist. Others will have run out of clergy.
The problem isn’t God. God remains the same. People’s need and desire for God remains the same at gut level. The problem has been the Institutional Church. The child molestation issues within the Roman Catholic Church have been devastating to everyone. If people cannot trust their children, their precious children, with clergy in the church, who can they trust? That lack of trust is devastating.
But it is far more than the Roman Catholic Church. The Institutional Church, on every level, has been in a civil war. Conservative versus liberal. Prosperity Gospel versus Liberation Theology. Traditional versus contemporary. When the author Anne Rice made the observation that the Christian Church was more interested in fighting amongst itself, her words were an honest indictment on Christianity. Denominations, often seem more interested in determining how to survive than how to serve. Local churches are often trying to figure out how to stay alive for even five more years than to serve the communities around them.
I love the words St. Paul wrote to Timothy so many years ago:
I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.
In watching Glenn Beck ‘preaching’ it was startling. His ‘theology’ was bogus nonsense. He had nice pious platitudes wrapped around the Prosperity Gospel and seemingly Messianic ambitions of his own. But there are a lot of itching ears embracing his words and believing in him. As a member of the clergy who does try to embrace the truth of God, it was chilling and frightening.
Yet, I don’t blame Beck. He’s filling a void and his coffers. I feel badly that people embrace this nonsense, but I’m also recognizing that they are embracing it because the Institutional Church has failed and is failing on so many levels.
People have lost their faith in institutions because those institutions are failing them on a regular basis. I’m going to continue to wrestle with this over the next days and share my wrestling match with others. I’d love to hear others’ observations as well.
There is anger toward our leaders in Washington, D.C. This is not new. People were angry at the government and tossed Republicans out of power. President Bush left office with very low approval numbers and Vice President Cheney was a little less popular than phlegm when he left office. There was a major power shift in Congress. There was a rebellion on those in power. We were in two wars with uncertain outcomes and the economy was bad.
Times have changed but people’s anger has not subsided. President Obama’s approval ratings have dropped and Congress is as beloved now, in Democratic control as it was in Republican control. Combat troops have left Iraq but over 50,000 American soldiers remain there and no one really knows the future of Iraq. Afghanistan remains a mess and the economy is still bad. The strategies for dealing with the economy changed, but far too many people remain without jobs.
People are angry. Democrats rallied and supported the non-establishment candidate, Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton and followed this through to the election.
People have lost faith in government in a big way. Both parties have attempted to take advantage of this, but if either party had the courage to really deal with this they would find that the problem is that both parties have failed the country miserably. Ideologies are not principles; ideologies are simply ideologies that, when followed blindly lead into an abyss. As our political parties become increasingly ideological, they become increasingly less pragmatic and increasingly less interested in serving people.
People have lost faith because they are being sold a bill of good by both the Democrats and the Republicans. Both parties are living by the same credo: Party First!
But, alas, there is more. People have also lost interest in church. Increasingly people are identifying themselves as atheists or spiritual but not religious. By the end of the next decade I suspect that at least half the churches in existence across the country will have closed. Many will have run out of people and money and will cease to exist. Others will have run out of clergy.
The problem isn’t God. God remains the same. People’s need and desire for God remains the same at gut level. The problem has been the Institutional Church. The child molestation issues within the Roman Catholic Church have been devastating to everyone. If people cannot trust their children, their precious children, with clergy in the church, who can they trust? That lack of trust is devastating.
But it is far more than the Roman Catholic Church. The Institutional Church, on every level, has been in a civil war. Conservative versus liberal. Prosperity Gospel versus Liberation Theology. Traditional versus contemporary. When the author Anne Rice made the observation that the Christian Church was more interested in fighting amongst itself, her words were an honest indictment on Christianity. Denominations, often seem more interested in determining how to survive than how to serve. Local churches are often trying to figure out how to stay alive for even five more years than to serve the communities around them.
I love the words St. Paul wrote to Timothy so many years ago:
I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.
In watching Glenn Beck ‘preaching’ it was startling. His ‘theology’ was bogus nonsense. He had nice pious platitudes wrapped around the Prosperity Gospel and seemingly Messianic ambitions of his own. But there are a lot of itching ears embracing his words and believing in him. As a member of the clergy who does try to embrace the truth of God, it was chilling and frightening.
Yet, I don’t blame Beck. He’s filling a void and his coffers. I feel badly that people embrace this nonsense, but I’m also recognizing that they are embracing it because the Institutional Church has failed and is failing on so many levels.
People have lost their faith in institutions because those institutions are failing them on a regular basis. I’m going to continue to wrestle with this over the next days and share my wrestling match with others. I’d love to hear others’ observations as well.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Monday Random Thoughts
I watched the news this morning. A second person from “Jersey Shore” was arrested for something. These people are going to give the impression that people from New Jersey get in trouble or something. What bugs me about “Jersey Shore” is that Seaside Heights is a family place that most people from New Jersey have been going to all their lives. The television show makes it look like it’s this awful place.
“Jersey Boys” is a play and a lot of people have been going to see it. Whenever I want to see a Jersey boy, I look in the mirror. (For those who are wondering, this is a joke.)
The whole mosque controversy in New York troubles me. Seriously. To be perfectly honest, I am not feeling warm and fuzzy toward Islam. I sincerely believe that moderate Islam and moderate Islamic nations need to be more pro-active in addressing the abuses of radical Islam. As for the mosque in that area of New York City, again, I’m not feeling warm and fuzzy about it. I’d greatly prefer an Interfaith Center where all faiths can come together. I believe the symbolism of that would be important and good.
But, I don’t believe that it ought to be stopped. The President’s comments the other day were, in my mind, right on. We do have a freedom of religion in the United States that cannot be trampled by anyone. Newt Gingrich recently said that Saudi Arabia does not have any churches or synagogues in their nation. That’s dreadful, but I has nothing to do with us other than make us happy we are not like them. I’d hate to go down a path of denying religious freedom. It’s just wrong. Nothing is more American than allowing a place of Worship to be built; even if we disagree with who they are and how they Worship.
While I am ranting, the immigration debate is obviously hot and heavy. An underlying problem in this debate is this. There are actually two ‘signs’ up for the people crossing over from Mexico. One sign says, ‘Keep Out.” The other sign says, “Help Wanted.” There is a great deal of energy spent in wanting to keep people out and to toss the people who are here illegally; but there is virtually no energy at penalizing the people and businesses who hire illegal immigrants. If those hiring the illegal immigrants were targeted and illegal folks had no place to work, the incentive to cross the border would diminish greatly.
I have a modest budget balancing proposal for Congress that would address term limits and the budget deficit. Eliminate all Congressional pensions. The money the nation would save would be huge and people who limit their terms without having to change the Constitution.
Speaking of the Constitution, it is always entertaining how the party out of power always speaks about the other party not following the Constitution. The Democrats screamed it when George W. Bush was the President and the Republicans are screaming it now.
And if it’s so good, why do people always want to amend it?
The Giants and the Jets have their pre-season game tonight. I have my DVR ready to record it. I’m not expecting a great deal. Pre-season football is pretty awful. From the looks of the weekend the Colts will be terrible and the Redskins will be a powerhouse. I doubt both of those premises a lot. But speaking of the Colts, I hope they do well, but lose the second game of the regular season on a last second winning touchdown pass thrown by Manning. For those who are wondering, there is a way for Manning to lose this game and for Manning to win this game...
Bristol and Levi are turning into the new Jon and Kate. And one Jon and Kate was enough. Please. Stop!!!
And lastly. Brett Favre retired. Again. If I express skepticism at this, please forgive me.
“Jersey Boys” is a play and a lot of people have been going to see it. Whenever I want to see a Jersey boy, I look in the mirror. (For those who are wondering, this is a joke.)
The whole mosque controversy in New York troubles me. Seriously. To be perfectly honest, I am not feeling warm and fuzzy toward Islam. I sincerely believe that moderate Islam and moderate Islamic nations need to be more pro-active in addressing the abuses of radical Islam. As for the mosque in that area of New York City, again, I’m not feeling warm and fuzzy about it. I’d greatly prefer an Interfaith Center where all faiths can come together. I believe the symbolism of that would be important and good.
But, I don’t believe that it ought to be stopped. The President’s comments the other day were, in my mind, right on. We do have a freedom of religion in the United States that cannot be trampled by anyone. Newt Gingrich recently said that Saudi Arabia does not have any churches or synagogues in their nation. That’s dreadful, but I has nothing to do with us other than make us happy we are not like them. I’d hate to go down a path of denying religious freedom. It’s just wrong. Nothing is more American than allowing a place of Worship to be built; even if we disagree with who they are and how they Worship.
While I am ranting, the immigration debate is obviously hot and heavy. An underlying problem in this debate is this. There are actually two ‘signs’ up for the people crossing over from Mexico. One sign says, ‘Keep Out.” The other sign says, “Help Wanted.” There is a great deal of energy spent in wanting to keep people out and to toss the people who are here illegally; but there is virtually no energy at penalizing the people and businesses who hire illegal immigrants. If those hiring the illegal immigrants were targeted and illegal folks had no place to work, the incentive to cross the border would diminish greatly.
I have a modest budget balancing proposal for Congress that would address term limits and the budget deficit. Eliminate all Congressional pensions. The money the nation would save would be huge and people who limit their terms without having to change the Constitution.
Speaking of the Constitution, it is always entertaining how the party out of power always speaks about the other party not following the Constitution. The Democrats screamed it when George W. Bush was the President and the Republicans are screaming it now.
And if it’s so good, why do people always want to amend it?
The Giants and the Jets have their pre-season game tonight. I have my DVR ready to record it. I’m not expecting a great deal. Pre-season football is pretty awful. From the looks of the weekend the Colts will be terrible and the Redskins will be a powerhouse. I doubt both of those premises a lot. But speaking of the Colts, I hope they do well, but lose the second game of the regular season on a last second winning touchdown pass thrown by Manning. For those who are wondering, there is a way for Manning to lose this game and for Manning to win this game...
Bristol and Levi are turning into the new Jon and Kate. And one Jon and Kate was enough. Please. Stop!!!
And lastly. Brett Favre retired. Again. If I express skepticism at this, please forgive me.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Some Interesting View Points of Honesty
In looking at PolitiFact, which is non-partisan, it checks out statements made to see if they are honest or dishonest. They have six categories that I have summarized into three.
The first are either totally true or mostly true statements. The person is speaking the truth or they may have one small insignificant piece of information of no consequences that throws off their total.
The second are half true or barely true statements. It is not a lie, but sometimes to make it true you have to take several pieces of information and stretch them in an unnatural way.
The third things stated that are totally false and, in their words, liar, liar, pants on fire lies. However one parses it, the person ought not to have said this as what they are saying is totally false.
It should be stated that PolitFact is non-partisan and unbiased. In each case they validate, beyond doubt, by proving the person to be right, half-right, or dead wrong.
I chose a wide range of people and there are people who are clearly more honest than others. Barack Obama is the President and Sarah Palin is one of the leading Republican spokespersons at this time.
John Boehner is the House Minority leader, and Nancy Pelosi is the Speaker of the House and interesting as are several other pundits and political leaders.
I have no editorial comment to make on anyone other than the fact that I was appalled at many of the percentage figures for dishonesty. The Ninth Commandment must not be in a lot of Bibles...
Barack Obama
Truthful 47.5% of the time.
Halfway 34.7% of the time.
Dishonest 17.7% of the time.
Sarah Palin
Truthful 37.5% of the time
Halfway 30.0% of the time
Dishonest 32.5% of the time.
John Boehner
Truthful 50.0% of the time.
Halfway 25.0% of the time.
Dishonest 25.0% of the time.
Nancy Pelosi
Truthful 20.0% of the time.
Halfway 60.0% of the time.
Dishonest 20.0% of the time.
Rush Limbaugh
Truthful 8.3% of the time.
Halfway 41.7% of the time.
Dishonest 50% of the time.
Keith Olbermann
Truthful 28.5% of the time.
Halfway 43% of the time.
Dishonest 28.5% of the time.
Glenn Beck
Truthful 12% of the time.
Halfway 44% of the time.
Dishonest 44% of the time.
John McCain
Truthful 39% of the time.
Halfway 34% of the time.
Dishonest 28% of the time.
Rachel Maddow (in fairness, only four comments, but not a good start)
Truthful 0
Halfway 50% of the time.
Dishonest 50% of the time.
Joe Biden
Truthful 40% of the time.
Halfway 39% of the time.
Dishonest 21% of the time.
Mitch McConnell
Truthful 40% of the time.
Halfway 30% of the time.
Dishonest 30% of the time.
Hillary Clinton
Truthful 46% of the time.
Halfway 43% of the time.
Dishonest 11% of the time.
Harry Reid
Truthful 17% of the time.
Halfway 50% of the time.
Dishonest 33% of the time.
The first are either totally true or mostly true statements. The person is speaking the truth or they may have one small insignificant piece of information of no consequences that throws off their total.
The second are half true or barely true statements. It is not a lie, but sometimes to make it true you have to take several pieces of information and stretch them in an unnatural way.
The third things stated that are totally false and, in their words, liar, liar, pants on fire lies. However one parses it, the person ought not to have said this as what they are saying is totally false.
It should be stated that PolitFact is non-partisan and unbiased. In each case they validate, beyond doubt, by proving the person to be right, half-right, or dead wrong.
I chose a wide range of people and there are people who are clearly more honest than others. Barack Obama is the President and Sarah Palin is one of the leading Republican spokespersons at this time.
John Boehner is the House Minority leader, and Nancy Pelosi is the Speaker of the House and interesting as are several other pundits and political leaders.
I have no editorial comment to make on anyone other than the fact that I was appalled at many of the percentage figures for dishonesty. The Ninth Commandment must not be in a lot of Bibles...
Barack Obama
Truthful 47.5% of the time.
Halfway 34.7% of the time.
Dishonest 17.7% of the time.
Sarah Palin
Truthful 37.5% of the time
Halfway 30.0% of the time
Dishonest 32.5% of the time.
John Boehner
Truthful 50.0% of the time.
Halfway 25.0% of the time.
Dishonest 25.0% of the time.
Nancy Pelosi
Truthful 20.0% of the time.
Halfway 60.0% of the time.
Dishonest 20.0% of the time.
Rush Limbaugh
Truthful 8.3% of the time.
Halfway 41.7% of the time.
Dishonest 50% of the time.
Keith Olbermann
Truthful 28.5% of the time.
Halfway 43% of the time.
Dishonest 28.5% of the time.
Glenn Beck
Truthful 12% of the time.
Halfway 44% of the time.
Dishonest 44% of the time.
John McCain
Truthful 39% of the time.
Halfway 34% of the time.
Dishonest 28% of the time.
Rachel Maddow (in fairness, only four comments, but not a good start)
Truthful 0
Halfway 50% of the time.
Dishonest 50% of the time.
Joe Biden
Truthful 40% of the time.
Halfway 39% of the time.
Dishonest 21% of the time.
Mitch McConnell
Truthful 40% of the time.
Halfway 30% of the time.
Dishonest 30% of the time.
Hillary Clinton
Truthful 46% of the time.
Halfway 43% of the time.
Dishonest 11% of the time.
Harry Reid
Truthful 17% of the time.
Halfway 50% of the time.
Dishonest 33% of the time.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Monday Musings
BP is evidently close to putting a better cap on the well and the goal is to collect 100% of the oil being leaked. I do hope they are able to do this and the Gulf is able to be cleaned. This is a disaster of monumental proportions. The well is close to a mile underwater. I can’t fathom how it was drilled in the first place. I would think we need to be assured we can manage wells that deep.
Trading spies with Russia sounds weird to me. Evidently the spies in the United States had information mostly findable on Google and didn’t do a lot of damage. I’m wondering what the American spies found out. I’m not really sure any of us can really analyze if this was a good trade or not as we don’t know all the details; and never will.
The perfect ending to the story was LeBron James having a press conference at an inner city gym in Akron or Cleveland telling people he would never leave his home area and was committed to the people of the hard-working Midwestern area that has always been his home. It would have been the right thing to do and it would have been a good thing to do. Unfortunately, in this day and age ‘good’ and ‘right’ only seems to happen in fiction.
Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich says he's considering running for president in 2012 and expects to make a decision by early next year. I’m sure people are holding their breath in excitement waiting for him to make his decision.
There is something striking, to me, in the immigration debate. For all the comments about the Arizona law, it is difficult for me to make a lot of comments. I do not live in Arizona and have never been to Arizona and I don’t really have a grasp of the kind of problems the people of Arizona are facing.
But here is what I do know. The border between the United States and Mexico has been porous for as long as I can recall. The problem, at least to me, is that we have two competing signs up on the border. One says, “Keep Out!” The other one says, “Help Wanted!” People come across the border because people not only hire them, but people want to hire them for illegally low wages. We will not be able to enforce the “Keep Out” until we stop people from hiring illegal people for illegal wages. And, this little detail is the one that never makes the news and the root problem of the whole problem.
Speaking of illegal immigration, there is also the human slave trade issue. Increasingly, more and more people are smuggled into the United States from Asia and Eastern Europe especially, to work for slave wages or to ‘pay off’ their trip. Many end up abused in the sex trade. Not a lot of clamor about this in Washington, D.C. these days.
Jesse Jackson criticized Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert on Sunday, saying Gilbert sees LeBron James as a "runaway slave'' and that the owner's comments after the free-agent forward decided to join the Miami Heat put the player in danger. Jackson indicated that Gilbert saw himself as the owner of James and not the team. Jackson also conveniently left out all the money Gilbert offered James and all the perks that James received by Gilbert over the years to reward James for playing for Cleveland. Referring to a modern day professional athlete as a ‘slave’ dishonors those who actually were and are slaves.
Recent tapes are demonstrating that Mel Gibson is a racist and a sexist, and all around nasty guy. People are shocked the world over. Next thing they may do is tell us that the artist formerly known as Prince, Prince, and the artist formerly known as Prince is now known as Prince, is odd.
Lindsey Lohan is incredibly talented and beautiful and in trouble. I’m wondering of the judge was overly harsh on her because Lohan is a celebrity, or if the judge is actually going to save Lindsey’s life with this? I really hate to see young people like her go down the tubes.
Barbara Walters is 80. That is difficult to believe.
Jonathan Alter writes that Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner should have to debate on national television. Have them debate on what their role as the Speaker would be and how they would guide the House of Representatives, and what their ideas are for the future. I agree.
Trading spies with Russia sounds weird to me. Evidently the spies in the United States had information mostly findable on Google and didn’t do a lot of damage. I’m wondering what the American spies found out. I’m not really sure any of us can really analyze if this was a good trade or not as we don’t know all the details; and never will.
The perfect ending to the story was LeBron James having a press conference at an inner city gym in Akron or Cleveland telling people he would never leave his home area and was committed to the people of the hard-working Midwestern area that has always been his home. It would have been the right thing to do and it would have been a good thing to do. Unfortunately, in this day and age ‘good’ and ‘right’ only seems to happen in fiction.
Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich says he's considering running for president in 2012 and expects to make a decision by early next year. I’m sure people are holding their breath in excitement waiting for him to make his decision.
There is something striking, to me, in the immigration debate. For all the comments about the Arizona law, it is difficult for me to make a lot of comments. I do not live in Arizona and have never been to Arizona and I don’t really have a grasp of the kind of problems the people of Arizona are facing.
But here is what I do know. The border between the United States and Mexico has been porous for as long as I can recall. The problem, at least to me, is that we have two competing signs up on the border. One says, “Keep Out!” The other one says, “Help Wanted!” People come across the border because people not only hire them, but people want to hire them for illegally low wages. We will not be able to enforce the “Keep Out” until we stop people from hiring illegal people for illegal wages. And, this little detail is the one that never makes the news and the root problem of the whole problem.
Speaking of illegal immigration, there is also the human slave trade issue. Increasingly, more and more people are smuggled into the United States from Asia and Eastern Europe especially, to work for slave wages or to ‘pay off’ their trip. Many end up abused in the sex trade. Not a lot of clamor about this in Washington, D.C. these days.
Jesse Jackson criticized Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert on Sunday, saying Gilbert sees LeBron James as a "runaway slave'' and that the owner's comments after the free-agent forward decided to join the Miami Heat put the player in danger. Jackson indicated that Gilbert saw himself as the owner of James and not the team. Jackson also conveniently left out all the money Gilbert offered James and all the perks that James received by Gilbert over the years to reward James for playing for Cleveland. Referring to a modern day professional athlete as a ‘slave’ dishonors those who actually were and are slaves.
Recent tapes are demonstrating that Mel Gibson is a racist and a sexist, and all around nasty guy. People are shocked the world over. Next thing they may do is tell us that the artist formerly known as Prince, Prince, and the artist formerly known as Prince is now known as Prince, is odd.
Lindsey Lohan is incredibly talented and beautiful and in trouble. I’m wondering of the judge was overly harsh on her because Lohan is a celebrity, or if the judge is actually going to save Lindsey’s life with this? I really hate to see young people like her go down the tubes.
Barbara Walters is 80. That is difficult to believe.
Jonathan Alter writes that Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner should have to debate on national television. Have them debate on what their role as the Speaker would be and how they would guide the House of Representatives, and what their ideas are for the future. I agree.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)