Little in Common with their Cause

I was poking around the news of John David Schofield's just desserts and I came across the web pages for Common Cause Patnership.  I saw a couple of things that saddened me:  college pal and fellow house church brother Norman Beale is listed among clergy members, and in their foundational documents they - I hope inadvertently - redefine Christian Communion to a new level of understanding.  Item 10.4 in their Articles of Incorporation (Confederation would be more honest) states "Communicant members of any Partner shall be received b y a congregation of another Partner on presentation of a letter of transfer."  I hope that this was only meant to establish a consistent method for movement of lay members from parish to parish.  It could just as easily be read "a letter of transfer is sufficient to establish membership in another parish." How are members of non-partner congregations to be received by a Partner parish: exam? testimony? first born?  And what role does the rector play in making a determination?  

Later I was still surfing my regular stops and remembered this wonderful recounting of Sara Miles and her introduction to Episcopal Worship a la St. Gregory of Nyssa.  I don't believe a CCP parish would accept her letter of transfer. As a rector I would. 

Chicken Doves and Waterboarding for God

I have some questions thanks to the wake-up call I received in reading Ray McGovern of Common Dreams and Matt Taibi of Rollingstone.  

Why have none of the moderated debates for either party questioned the candidates about:

• reversing Bush's unitary executive office?
  
• impeachment of Bush, Cheney, Gonzales, et al
  
• reversal of No Child Left Behind
  
• ending to corporate welfare
  
• the false piety of the Republican Elite
  
• the hypocrisy of the Evangelistic Leadership as non-questioning supporters of Bush
  
• etc., etc., etc
  

Why wait for a debate?  Why haven't any of the candidates asked these questions of each other? By not making known what they believe on these matters and countless others that don't make the manufactured news, each of the candidates -- regardless of party --  leaves us ready to assume that come January 2009 nothing will change but the White House letterhead. 

Republicans and Biblical Justice for the Middle Class

Even Huck the Bible Thumping Bee can't pull it off with his (not so) Fair Tax but given the chance so far NONE of the Republicans have mentioned any long term direct help to the middle class in their economic plans.  And we all know the current "stimulus package" will not come so enough for most -- read April the 15th -- and be roughly equal to a "Title Pawn" as a boost to the economy.  With too many Democrats joining them they sing,  "Let's spend our way out of this recession."  

Here's what Jeremiah said,

"For wicked men are found among my people; they lurk like fowlers lying in wait. They set a trap; they catch men. Like a basket full of birds, their houses are full of treachery; therefore they have become great and rich, they have grown fat and sleek. They know no bounds in deeds of wickedness; they judge not with justice the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy. Shall I not punish them for these things? says the LORD, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?"" Jeremiah 5:26-29, RSV. 

and before you think I'm out of line check this info from PBS' Frontline:

10 Reasons America's Two-Income Families Aren't What You Think
(According to Harvard Law professor and bankruptcy expert Elizabeth Warren)

1. Two-income families today make 75% more in inflation-adjusted dollars, but have less money to spend than one-income families did 30 years ago. 
2. Two-income families today spend: 21% less on clothing, 22% less on food, and 44% less on appliances compared to one-income families a generation ago. 
3. Every 15 seconds an American family files for bankruptcy. 
4. This year, more kids will live through their parents' bankruptcy, than through their parents' divorce. 
5. 1.6 million families will file for bankruptcy this year, 9 million more are already in credit counseling. 
6. Home mortgage foreclosures are up more than three-fold over the last generation and car foreclosures have hit record levels. 
7. More than 62% of families say that they worry about making ends meet. 
8. The average family spends 69% more in inflation-adjusted dollars on their home mortgage than their parents spent a generation ago. 
9. The average family spends 61% more on health insurance, than their parents spent a generation ago. 
10. Credit card default rates are at a record high.

Jesus v. the Church

From FrJake: unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity by David Kinnaman, President of the Barna Group, and Gabe Lyons, founder of the Fermi Project. Their research project involved interviewing "outsiders" (those who are outside the Christian faith) and young Christians, focusing on the 16 - 29 age group (identified as older "Mosaics" and younger "Busters"). The perception that they discovered of how younger generations view "Christians" is a real eye opener. Here's a few of the top descriptions from the "outsider" group:

Question: Here are some words or phrases that could be used to describe a religious faith. Please indicate if you think each of these phrases describes Christianity.

91% - Antihomosexual

87% - Judgmental

85% - Hypocritical

75% - Too involved in politics

Here's some of the responses to the same question from young adults who are church members:

80% - Antihomosexual

52% - Judgmental

47% - Hypocritical

50% - Too involved in politics

Oh, to see ourselves as others see us!

frDann

Obama and Niebuhr

Thanks to David Brooks for the opening but even more thanks to Barak Obama for his depth of understanding and demeanor.  These are the things that interest me in his candidacy.  I picked this up via Slacktivist, but do follow the links to the whole interview, Brooks' remarks, Casey Blake's remarks and the comments.    All in all it is the kind of thinking and reflection sorely missing from the Bush side.  Duh!  Which is not the point of the original or the first few commentators.   

I remember having a conversation with one of my colleagues in the Diocese of Atlanta, rector of a  large downtown Atlanta parish.  It was in the days following the Trache debacle.  We were considering a new batch of nominees and thinking about the basics, the one or two things that "our choice" must possess.  Without cue we looked at each other and said together, "She has to be smart!"  We voted and the election found a very smart, very bright man.  

Since then I've had my experiences with J. Neil Alexander be nothing if not strong confirmations of the role that intelligence and enlightened thinking play in a progressive church like ours.    

So here's my take on the Presidents I've known:

Kennedy - smart and bright, I never minded that he was so very patrician.

Johnson - smart but too much a the Texas Senator and Majority Leader instead of being presidential

Nixon - smart but nefarious, very, very dark!

Ford - Honest but not bright and not presidential

Carter - smart but too Southern Baptist

Reagan - not smart (senile?) and too presidential.

Bush - more patrician than smart (CIA, Saudi $$, Daddy's $)

Clinton - very smart and very bright but horribly narcissistic 

Bush - not smart, not bright, not much more than stubborn.

Think about how these men answered tough questions.  Kennedy would not show perturbation.  Carter would get impatient at times but he would still answer the question, often "upping the ante."  Clinton would answer too much or too well.  (Remember Slick Willy!)  

Now think about how frustrated you have seen Reagan and Bushes become at questions that were often screened in advance!    Ford does not rank here but does balance Johnson's short term.  Neither was presidential.  Both were Hill toppers in the White House.  Johnson was a Senator from Texas.  Ford was a multi-term Congressman.

Somewhere around Nixon, Carter, Reagan the mythic responsibility of the Presidency began to loom over whoever sat in the Oval Office.  Think how grandious some of their ideas became.  Carter's Olympic boycott.  Reagan thought big of himself in that old romantic cowboy way, as if he could ride over tell that Mr. Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.  And the worst was Nixon with the tapes and Plumbers.  Who did these people think they were?   Only Clinton after them "reigned from on high."  

The Bushes have pretended.  Gentiles.  

The only rub against Obama - youth.  But boy is he smart  AND bright!  

Rev. Beth Long's Witness for a Living Wage

St. Gregory's Rector, Beth Long, joined a state-wide gathering advocating for Georgia's assembly to pass legislation to raise the minimum wage as they met at the Presbyterian Center in Athens.  She rocked the house!  Here's what she said:

Why do people of faith need to raise the minimum wage?  Because Moses led the Hebrew people out of slavery in Egypt!  He received a covenant which empowered living life as a free people: physically, socially, economically and spiritually. There is hardly anywhere you can open the Bible that you will not find true religion equated with social and economic justice, and idolatry equated with injustice and oppression. 

Jesus of Nazareth said plenty about money.  It was one of his favorite topics, second only to the kingdom of God.   For almost 200 years after his death, the people who followed his way lived with equality, sharing and non-violence.  Love God with all your heart and life and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

Do you want to work like a slave and still not have enough to feed, clothe and house yourself and your family, and never enjoy a Sabbath rest without worry and anxiety for the future?   Would you want that for your own children?  Would you want that for anyone you love?  God certainly doesn’t want that for you.  That’s why God led the people out of slavery in Egypt and sent the prophets to the kings every time they began to make it hard for ordinary folk to survive.  So if we love this God, we will want for our neighbors the same good things that God wants for us:  to live in health and safety with enough to eat, and a day of rest to enjoy and give thanks for all our blessings.  Right now we have a perfect opportunity to live this out by supporting the increase in the minimum wage in Georgia and to continue to do so until it becomes a living wage!

Maybe some of us think this is impossible.  We imagine that institutional and economic realities are absolute constraints on our creativity and what is possible for us to accomplish.  But the good news of God’s love is not a luxury or a fairy tale. Where we see scarcity, Jesus and the prophets see abundance. 

The living God tells us there is enough, and in fact, there is more than enough.  When we stand by while others are hungry or enslaved, we are starving and imprisoning our own souls because deep down it is our joy to love our neighbors as ourselves! 

Why do people of faith need to raise the minimum wage?  Hear the words of the Prophet Isaiah:  “If you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness. . . The Lord will satisfy your needs in parched places and make your bones strong. . .your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.. . .Go through the gates, prepare the way for the people, build up the highway, clear it of stones; and you shall be called Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken.”

 

The Reverend Beth Long

St. Gregory the Great, Athens 

What law limits freedom of speech in the Capital building? And what did Cindy Sheehan's T-shirt say?

Better to ask: Is there a law that limits speakers to telling the truth? or at least names lying as an punishable offense? W can falsely assert the following without consequence but Cindy is arrested for wearing a T-shirt that says: 2,245 Dead — How Many More?? 

". . . It is said that prior to the attacks of September the 11th, our government failed to connect the dots of the conspiracy. We now know that two of the hijackers in the United States placed telephone calls to al Qaeda operatives overseas. But we did not know about their plans until it was too late. So to prevent another attack –- based on authority given to me by the Constitution and by statute -- I have authorized a terrorist surveillance program to aggressively pursue the international communications of suspected al Qaeda operatives and affiliates to and from America. Previous Presidents have used the same constitutional authority I have, and federal courts have approved the use of that authority. Appropriate members of Congress have been kept informed. The terrorist surveillance program has helped prevent terrorist attacks. It remains essential to the security of America. If there are people inside our country who are talking with al Qaeda, we want to know about it, because we will not sit back and wait to be hit again." 

Let me break it down: 

1. It is said - By whom? 

2.