Divine Salve

Regarding the Evangelical Kerfuffle about the Historicity of Adam and Eve

2011-09-07T23:43:00.000-04:00

Science was the best vehicle for determining whether Galileo was right. Church leaders who feared the crumbling of their Aristotelian theologies were not the best persons to make such a determination. Likewise, the discipline of history is the best vehicle for determining the historicity of Adam and Eve. Church leaders who fear the crumbling of their evangelical theologies are not the best persons to make such a determination. (By the way, non-sectarian historians overwhelmingly say there is absolutely no evidence for historicity in this regard.)

Theologies come and go -- patristic, scholastic, humanistic, fundamentalist, evangelical, progressive. The truth of the gospel is not dependent on our speculative theologies, nor is it threatened by a mythical understanding of any part of the biblical narrative. There is something good in each of these and other theologies, but they are not the gospel.

Regarding the idea that Moses wrote any part of the Bible, the written form of the Hebrew language emerged at the end of the second millennium BCE or the beginning of the first. Moses is supposed by Christian tradition to have been born around 1600, at a time before there would have been written Hebrew. The emergence of Hebrew script at the turn of the millennium aligns with mainline scholarly consensus that the earliest portions of the Torah were written around the time of David.

I am a Christian clergyperson. I am not trying to destroy the Bible, Christianity, the gospel, or salvation. None of these are harmed in any way by acknowledging the truth of our best critical understanding (which always changes anyway, because it is human understanding) of science and of history. If our theologies cannot stand the test of scientific or historical examination, we must change those theologies rather than stubbornly hold onto them because we're afraid to let them go. We've been changing our theologies for thousands of years. We can do it now, and the new theologies that emerge will become the next orthodoxy to guide a robust community of faith as long as it can continue to hold together. Then it will be time for the next theology to come along.

N.T. Wright's Scripture and the Authority of God

2011-07-12T00:06:00.006-04:00

Problems I have with N.T. Wright's Scripture and the Authority of God

Wright insists that the authority of scripture really means God's authority exercised through Scripture without making the case that this is so. It seems to me that the authority of scripture is also related to the authority of the church.

His insistence that there is an overarching narrative which he imposes on the scriptures. I think he treats that narrative in such a way that it rules scripture rather than the other way around.

He treats the New Testament as different from and better than the Old Testament. Although he claims the Old Testament is not "a lesser revelation" (171), he calls the Torah "a temporary dispensation designed to advance a larger project" (188). The Hebrew Scriptures must always, in his method, be interpreted in light of the Christian Scriptures. This, I believe robs the Hebrew Scriptures of their original context and meaning. I don't see Jesus under every rock in the desert or behind every burning bush. While I believe that Jesus gives new meaning to some passages of the Old Testament, I don't think they were written in reference to Jesus.

His interpretation of scripture leaves out marginalized voices in favor of "authorized" (115) or "accredited leaders" (137), although he does include the caveat that authority is not always structural but spiritual.

He restricts biblical interpretation to discovering "what the writers meant" (135), ignoring other forms of interpretation that he does not consider to be "loyal to the Christian community through time and space." Yet, when he actually engages in interpretation in the two Case Study chapters, he does not really inquire into who the authors were or what their perspective might have been; he actually interprets through his overarching narrative.

He dismisses any postmodern critique of the scriptures as something that only "achieves . . . a nihilism in which the only relief is a kind of hermeneutical narcissism, taking one's pleasure with the text and letting the rest of the world go by unnoticed" (99-100). Any feminist interpretation, he says, risks treating the text as wholly untrustworthy.

What I appreciated about the book

The two chapters in which he actually interprets the scriptures were full of interest tidbits, for instance:

The connection of creation with other ancient stories about gods building temples in which the image of the god is placed casts the universe as God's temple in which humanity in placed after having been created in God's image. The sabbath rest is then seen as the time when God goes about "'taking his ease,' taking up residence and being at peace in his new home" (148).

Being with Jesus is an experience in which the social justice aspects of the Jubilee and sabbath are realized. Jesus reveals time and space, the here and now, to be sacramental, "shot through with both memory and anticipation" and, quoting Gerard Manley Hopkins, "charged with the grandeur of God" (165).

After he deals with what he deems the inappropriate notion of Sunday as the Christian sabbath, he does ask, "What are you going to do this Sunday that is creative, that brings justice and mercy, that offers healing and hope?" It's hard to fault this perspective, regardless of how he got there.

Saving Paradise -- Part 2: Paradise Needs to Be Saved

2011-07-07T22:06:00.005-04:00

This is the second part of my review of Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire by Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker. The first part of my review focused on the book's description of the church as paradise in this world and as resistance against the violence of empire. I interpreted this part of the book to be about the salvific power of paradise, thus rendering the book's title to mean a paradise that saves.

Part 2 of the book deals with the decline of paradise on earth in the theology of the Western church and the concomitant ascent of a theology of crucifixion that pushes paradise out of this world and into the afterlife. Such a theology functions to support rather that resist empire in this world. I interpret this part of the book to be about a paradise that needs to be saved.

The crux of the book (pun only partially intended) is the chapter about the oldest existing crucifix, the Gero Cross, found in the Cologne Cathedral in Germany, pictured on the left. Charlemagne, having been crowned emperor by Pope Leo III in 800, was constantly expanding his territory, forcing the peoples he conquered to convert to Latin Christianity. One of the groups thus forcibly converted were Saxons who were already Christians, but not Latin Christians. They included a deep reverence for nature as part of their practice of Christianity. Christian rituals and those devoted to the Norse gods took place side by side. Carolingian (Charlemagne's) forces subdued the populace and enforced Latin Christianity in part by cutting sacred trees such as the sacred oak of Thor. The Saxons were told that they were responsible for Christ's crucifixion and that, if they did not convert to Latin Christianity and give up all aspects of paganism, they would die without being forgiven for crucifying Christ and would therefore go to hell. Ironically, the Gero Cross was fashioned out of oak by the great-grandchildren of those subdued by point of sword and by threat of hell.

Accompanying this new emphasis on guilt for killing Christ and the pushing of paradise into the afterlife was the acceptance of killing. Earlier Christians had refused to kill other people under any circumstance, and, when Christianity had been co-opted by the Roman Empire, Christians who had been conscripted into the military were treated as penitents for a year upon their return home. This prohibition against killing was turned on its head by the time of the Carolingian Empire. Killing those outside the empire was acceptable because they were considered to be the enemies of Christ.

Monasteries became the place where paradise was preserved in this world. It became the norm that everyday people couldn't be expected to live lives of paradise, experienced both in nature and in communal relationships, so paradise was cloistered. This led to the idea that the empire was the cloister of Christianity and that everyone outside the "walls" of the empire were outside paradise.

Eucharistic theology and practice began to change, as well. No longer a celebration of the risen Christ and the risen faithful, it became an experience of sacrifice, in which the death of Christ was both commemorated and recapitulated during each Mass. The violence of empire, rather than being resisted, became an integral part of Christianity. The authors draw a straight line from this to the Crusades and to the so-called "redemptive suffering" that made torture acceptable.

Paradise was discovered in this world once again by the "discovery" of the New World. The annihilation of its inhabitants was considered to be completely acceptable because of the violent theology of the church, which sanctioned slavery to subdue the New World and make it into a paradise in which Christians can live.

The authors do see hope in the twentieth century in the theology and practice of Walter Rauschenbusch and Martin Luther King, Jr. For both, this world, rather than the next, is the place of God's saving activity.

I was refreshed by Part 1 of this book. Part 2, on the other hand, recounts the imperialization of Christianity as a violent religion, one that punishes, kills, and enslaves. The greatest challenge put forth by the book was the idea that pushing paradise out of this world and into the afterlife creates the sense that we are always "lost' in this world (not the evangelical sense of "lost," but in the sense that, even as Christians we don't belong in the world but only in the afterlife). This, the authors convincingly contend, creates the twin feelings of nostalgia and hope, that justify all kinds of atrocities in the hope to restore the world to that imaginary state that only exists in our nostalgia.

I therefore will resist the temptation to yearn for how the church used to be. Instead, as the authors suggest, I will endeavor to love the world as it exists in the here and now. I will find beauty in the world and enjoy it. I will create relationships of mutual love. I will recognize that paradise is in this world and that it includes those who have died in Christ. I will attempt to live non-violently in my actions and in my theology. I will seek justice for all. I will live the resurrected life in communion with the risen Lord and the risen faithful. I can't do this alone. We need each other to grow into the image of the divine meant for us by God. As you can see, I recommend this book wholeheartedly.

Deliver Us from Evil

2011-07-06T18:55:00.007-04:00

Darkwood Brew is an online community of faith that streams a weekly service on Sundays at 6:00 ET that utilizes jazz, Lectio Divina, Skype interviews, and online chat. It is currently in the middle of a series on the Lord's Prayer. Posted today on the Darkwood Brew Facebook page today was the following: "We're focusing this week on 'Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.' If you could choose which side of this phrase to discuss, which side would you choose and why?"

When I read this, I couldn't come to any conclusion about which side I preferred to discuss. I put aside my laptop and opened Brian McLaren's Naked Spirituality, which I've been reading slowly, one chapter a day. McLaren begins today's chapter, entitled "Help: Tapping into the Current of Power," with The Prayer of Jabez, which was very popular several years ago. He quotes the last part of Jabez' little prayer, using the NKJV, which is the version used by the book: "[K]eep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!"

I don't use the NKJV, and I didn't think much of The Prayer of Jabez. This juxtaposition, though, gives some poignancy to the above question. Jabez' name meant "pain" because his mother had a painful delivery. That's a pretty harsh name, so a prayer that says keep me from evil so I won't keep on being a pain would seem to be one that's rising up from his very identity. He's asking for grace to transcend that identity.

My name is biblical and means "beloved." That's not a name I need to run from, but rather run toward. As I think about being delivered from evil, I am prompted to pray, "Keep me from evil, that I may live up to being beloved, that I may live a life of love." As a communal prayer, the Lord's Prayer, prompts me to pray, "deliver us from evil, that we may be Christ's body redeemed by his blood" (a little Eucharist blessing thrown in there). Or, identifying the Lord's Prayer with all humanity: "deliver us from evil, that God's image might shine forth in our lives."

Just a few thoughts prompted by a bit of synchronicity between this week's question and my devotional reading.

Saving Paradise -- Part 1: Paradise as Salvific

2011-07-03T12:30:00.005-04:00

I just finished reading Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire by Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker. I bought the book last summer, but wound up not having time to read it, as my father's health began to decline about that time. I began spending more and more time with my parents during this time, and my father died in the fall. I insisted that Dad's pastor, a "low-church" United Methodist, use the United Methodist Service of Death and Resurrection at the funeral. Those words, inscribed upon my heart from the numerous times I have said them, mean a great deal to me. The opening words at Dad's funeral were:

Dying, Christ destroyed our death.
Rising, Christ restored our life.
Christ will come again in glory.
As in baptism Harry Miller put on Christ, so in Christ may Harry be clothed with glory.
Here and now, dear friends, we are God’s children.
What we shall be has not yet been revealed; but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
Those who have this hope purify themselves as Christ is pure.

In addition to the explicit reference to baptism, the Eucharist is implied, as the first three lines invoke the mystery of faith proclaimed in the Eucharistic liturgy: "Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again." It is meaningful to me to say these words with the community of faith. The pastor of the church I am attending is another "low-church" United Methodist, and the few times we've had Communion since Dad's death, I don't recall his having used the liturgy. In April, I and a colleague took a group of students to visit a Greek Orthodox Church. Immediately upon seeing the iconostasis -- the panel of icons re-presenting (re-presencing?) to the gathered faithful that great cloud of witnesses composed of those who have died in Christ -- I became aware of Dad's presence filling that place within myself where I had been experiencing nothing but absence for months.

I indulge in this bit of self-revelation not, I hope, as a form of exhibitionism but as a practical example of the importance of the life-affirming theology found in this book. The book is written in two parts, the first of which has refreshed my spirit and which will be the subject of this post. The book begins with a description of the authors' travels to view Christianity's earliest art. To their surprise, a dying or dead Jesus is nowhere to be found until the tenth century. Rather, Jesus is always depicted as being alive, whether those depictions are of a youthful Jesus tending sheep or of a resurrected Jesus pronouncing a blessing on those looking at the artwork.

They also discovered a paradise motif. Over and over, Jesus is shown in the context of greenery, trees, and rivers. Not just any paradise is depicted, either, but none other than the Paradise of Genesis, the Garden of Eden. Having been thus sensitized to this motif, they discovered a plethora of written material from the church "fathers" and even some mothers that described the church as paradise on earth. Rather than seeing paradise as a promise of afterlife, Saving Paradise paints a convincing picture of a Christian emphasis on the here and now as the ultimate time and place of God's blessing.

Each chapter develops this motif from a different angle, forming a mosaic as beautiful and inspiring as the actual mosaics they describe. The elements of the mosaic include the location of paradise (Garden of Eden) being perceived as on earth, paradise as resistance to the evils of empire, the church as paradise on earth, paradise as the communion of the living and the dead, baptism as the "portal" to paradise, Eucharist as a ritual of resurrection, and salvation as theosis -- the process of humans becoming divine, "ingodded," as one quote puts it. As the mosaic is completed, paradise comes to be expressed as the integration of the spiritual and the material, the human and the divine. Paradise is relational and communal; it includes meeting the material needs of people as well as the spiritual, and it includes working for justice in an unjust empire.

Each one of these elements deserves elaboration, but I will confine my remarks to those most relevant to my self-revelation above, the chapters entitled "So Great a Cloud" and "The Beautiful Feast of Life." The point is made that Judaism began to include resurrection into its rabbinical theology during the time of martyrdom depicted deutero-canonically. If empire is killing the faithful precisely because they insist on remaining faithful, resurrection is the ultimate expression of the conviction that the violence of empire has no power over the faithful. Empire may kill the faithful, but a faithful God will erase those deaths. This is a new idea to me. I have previously understood resurrection to have entered Jewish consciousness through contact with Zoroastrianism. They cite Jon Davies' Death, Burial, and Rebirth in the Religions of Antiquity, and this merits more investigation on my part.

Making the connection between these Jewish martyrs and early Christian martyrs, the book envisions the Eucharist as a ritual that has the power to bring Jesus and all our deceased loved ones into our presence. (This part of the book builds on Brock's earlier work, particularly her Journeys by Heart: A Christology of Erotic Power, which examines the phenomenon of the living experiencing visits from the dead.) The Eucharist is the place where the power of the divine suffuses our existence here on earth. In the presence of the risen Christ and the risen faithful, we receive power to continue to resist the violence of empire, power to continue to meet the physical needs of people, power to see the spiritual in the material, power to engage in the work of justice, and power to live in paradise in the here and now.

On what seemed at the time to be his deathbed, my father said to me, thinking his words then to be his last to me (he lived another week), "We'll meet again. I believe this to be true." Through my tears, I said, "I believe it, too, and I love you." Because of my theological education, there are lots of ways in which my understanding of an afterlife (if there be such a thing) differed from Dad's, but it didn't matter; the two parts of my response to him were inseparable. The reciprocal love -- Brock calls it "erotic" love in her earlier book, love that finds value, beauty, truth, and goodness in another and that expects a loving response -- the reciprocal love between us demands that I believe it to be true. The reciprocal love between us, a love that reveals human/divine integration, makes it true. And now, thanks to this wonderful work of history and theology, I realize I don't have to wait for it to be true. It is true in the here and now. I was already inclined to think of the work of salvation as that of theosis, of the kingdom of God (or of heaven) as God's will on earth, and of the work of justice as essential to Christian discipleship, so I didn't have to be convinced.

The first part of Saving Paradise released many positive emotions within me, and I am grateful for it. I hope my self-revelation has not been merely self-indulgent on my part, but I hope it has been an example of the difference a here-and-now theology can make. The second part of the book, on the other hand, is a challenging and bracing account of the church's move from finding paradise in the here and now to yearning for it in the afterlife. There are numerous ethical considerations in such a move. In Part 2 of my review, I will deal with these.

Walter Brueggemann

2011-05-18T12:33:00.000-04:00

May 18, 2011 (2pm ET)
In the Room with Walter Brueggemann
Minnesota Public Radio ~ Saint Paul, Minnesota

Krista Tippett will be speaking with Walter Brueggemann, a "provocative, interesting, challenging, and imaginative" voice in the Protestant mainline tradition. The renowned Old Testament scholar and Professor Emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary is credited with shaping generations of ministers and sermons with his prolific interpretations of Hebrew text and his poetic books of prayer. In this interview, Krista will draw out his passion for using ancient texts to guide our modern human experience.

At 2 pm ET today, "onBeing" with Krista Tippett will be streaming live video with Mr. Brueggemann.

Neodance - Spiritual Dance of Old Europe

2010-12-16T16:29:00.000-05:00

At the beginning of this video, a dancer is asked what she feels when she dances. "I feel the freedom of the wind," she answers, "power of the earth, flowing of the water, energy of the fire. and all that transfused in endless love."

The rest of the video shows a small group of dancers engaged in a set of simple dances representing respectively wind, earth, water, and fire. There certainly is energy in these classical elements and in bodily movement. Tai Chi focuses the flow of energies within and around our bodies, sometimes drawing on energies of the earth, water, and air. Christian body prayer uses movement and sometimes uses the elements of creation as focal points.

How do you experience spirituality through body movement? Do you experience an immanent spirituality of wind, earth, water, and fire? Do you experience a transcendent spirituality of something beyond?

The Importance of Mary's Virginity

2010-12-15T23:53:00.001-05:00

"Texts from oppressed communities—Christians until 324— often mask politically dangerous ideas—like spirituals, which criticize U.S. slavery via the Exodus story."

This week's episode of Religion and Ethics Newsweekly has a story about Jews in the Terezin concentration camp singing Verdi's Requiem as a secret act of judgment upon their captors, to whom they were singing.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/december-10-2010/defiant-requiem-verdi-at-terezin/7628/
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

December 10, 2010 ~ Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezin | Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

2010-12-15T23:01:00.000-05:00

December 10, 2010 ~ Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezin | Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

A powerful instance of the truth of the arts and of religion, truth that was otherwise inexpressible.

The Importance of Mary's Virginity

2010-12-15T20:06:00.001-05:00

I don't think myth and truth are mutually exclusive. There are many different forms taken by truth. Some forms of truth can be expressed propositionally and are ultimately provable -- e=mc(squared), the sum of a triangle's angles is 180 degrees. Some are expressed propositionally but can't be proven -- the self-evident truths that all are created equal with certain unalienable rights. Some forms of truth are only intelligible because they hang together with other truth -- the coherence theory of truth.

The truth of art doesn't take a propositional form. Van Gogh's "Starry Night" isn't an attempt to accurately represent the night sky, but it does contain (or perhaps point to) the truth that our experience of reality can sometimes take a numinous character.

Narrative truth expresses truth of the human condition in a different way. In some ways, we find our own identity in the narratives that we hear and in those narratives that we tell.

20th-century hemeneut Paul Ricoeur described the function of myth as an overarching narrative that gives context to our individual primordial experiences. Mythic structures span the beginnings and endings of all things, including human existence. The Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution have rightly used critical tools to reveal myths for something other than literally true historical accounts. Ricoeur advocated a post-critical return to the truth of myths via a willed, second naivete. He doesn't think these myths are literally true (and neither do I), but they do possess truth that can't be expressed otherwise.
About Christianity
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The Importance of Mary's Virginity

2010-12-15T18:49:00.001-05:00

There is some evidence that some of the earliest Christian communities did engage in counter-cultural gender practices. Paul refers to an apostle named Junia and declares that there is no male nor female. The Gospels tell about Jesus talking to women in public, of women who fund Jesus' ministry, and of women who sit at Jesus' feet (indicating a disciple's proper position of study under a rabbi). The Johannine epistles refer to women who are heads of churches. The second-century Montanists practiced full-blown egalitarianism in regard to who can receive continuing revelation from the Spirit, and one of the main leaders claim that Jesus came to her in the form of a woman.

Your point about Constantinian Christianity quashing these forms is well taken.
About Christianity
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

2009-05-21T22:14:00.001-04:00

had a great time at Chicken with the Rev. Thanks Chris and Steve.

2009-05-20T16:10:00.001-04:00

Tom Smith was the preacher at ALPS this morning.

2009-05-15T19:16:00.001-04:00

just attended Keith's Baccalaureate and getting ready to eat at Cheddar's.

2009-05-15T01:01:00.001-04:00

thinks the J.J. Abrams Star Trek is a fantastic reboot for a venerable but moribund franchise. In other words, Star Trek rocks!

American Prayer

2008-08-23T13:53:00.005-04:00

I was very moved by this video. I cannot support a candidate in my role as a clergyperson, but, as many other members of clergy have done, I can do so as an individual.

As a progressive Christian, I long for the actualization of many of the planks in the Democratic platform, but I know better than to equate any political agenda with God's commonwealth. Many people I know and love support McCain; I understand their reasons, but I can't agree with them.

I have in times past, supported third-party candidates, particularly those of the Green Party, as their priorities are much closer to my own than those of the Democratic Party. Although I knew they had no chance to win, I thought that, by supporting them, pressure could be exerted on the Democratic Party to move to the left. This election cycle, however, I have become active in progressive movements within the Democratic Party.

Although Obama doesn't match up with my priorities as well as someone like Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party candidate, I feel that supporting the Democratic Party's progressive movements means supporting Obama for president. Even the Democratic Socialists of America, as leftist an organization one can find in our country, has come to the same conclusion. In its Declaration on the 2008 Presidential Election, the DSA says:

We have little hope that over the next three months the media will focus on the policy differences between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama. That is tragic, because there are major differences between the commitments of both candidates and their respective parties that need to be aired and understood, even if these differences are not as great as the democratic Left might like. Obama promises to restore to American workers the right to organize; to renegotiate international trade agreements so they enforce and do not retard labor, environmental, and human rights; to re-regulate the financial sector and end speculative excess; to bring troops home from Iraq and invest the saved funds in domestic needs; and to move toward universal health care. That’s a program worth electing a president on– or fighting for in the event the president and his party renege.

I know that there is a wide spectrum of political views among people of faith and among people of goodwill; I honor those differences and respect those who hold views different from my own. However, the current social positions of the Democratic Party, even when not fully lived up to, are much closer to my own progressive theological stance and to the social positions of my denomination, The United Methodist Church, than are those of the Republican Party.

Generally untrustworthy to fulfill their promises, politicians and political parties waver in the wind like a shaking reed in comparison to God's unshakable plumbline of justice. In all honesty, so do I. I waver, I shake, I tremble. I know that I could be wrong; I fear that he is just another politician, tricking us with rhetoric, but I am inspired and moved by his rhetoric. I think Obama is our best choice.

Network of Spiritual Progressive's Open Letter to Obama

2008-07-31T01:56:00.003-04:00

Tikkun to heal, repair and transform the world

A note from Rabbi Michael Lerner Join or Donate Now! Visit:

www.spiritualprogressives.org

July 27, 2008

Dear Friends,

Even if you don't personally connect to any particular religious community, you might still have friends or contacts who do and who know some clergy who'd want to sign the letter below. If you do, would you please contact them and ask them if they'd like to sign. And if they do, ask them to send their name and how they'd like to be identified. Because this particular effort is specifically for clergy, we won't take students at seminaries or leaders of religious communities who are not formally ordained, except leaders n communities like the Quakers which don't have any ordained clergy so there we'll take leaders of the local Meeting. Tell them to contact me at RabbiLerner@gmail.com

Meanwhile, if you'd like to sign this letter and slightly revise it to your needs, please send it on your own to the Obama headquarters in Chicago.

Warm regards,

Michael

Rabbi Michael Lerner Editor, Tikkun RabbiLerner@Tikkun.org

P.S.

Do you work with or know people who might be interested in being part of an ongoing effort to change the ethos of their profession or the context in which that profession is forced to operate--from materialism and maximing money and power and fame to a New Bottom Line of generosity, caring, love, kindness, ethical & ecological sensitivity, and awe and radical amazement at the grandeur of creation? If so, would you tell them that the interfaith Network of Spiritual Progressives is sponsoring a conference at the University of California Berkeley for these professional on Sept. 21, 2008, but that if they can't make that they can still be part of it by contacting dlapedis@tikkun.org. Tell them first to check our website www.spiritualprogressives.org for detailed information on how to register.

Would you be interested in working with me to help create a week long interfaith encampment for the summer of 2009 aimed at people ages 20-40 as a spiritual alternative to Burning Man (the annual event in November that draws 40-50,000 young people--check it out by Googling it, and if you don't know how to do that, well, you aren't the right person to help us build this event). Our gathering would be a celebration of spiritual progressives whose commitment to God, Spirit, or Love brings them into or sustains their work in Tikkun Olam (the healing and transformation of the world). If you are interested in helping to shape and build this, contact me please. We aren't 100% sure we can pull this off in 2009 and still do our Washington, D.C. conference in the Spring (which we must do), but if we get the financial backing, people-energy backing (but tell us what your skills are that would be helpful to building this and/or recruiting people to it).

****************************************

Dear Senator Obama,

As strong supporters of your campaign to become President of the U.S. in our own peronal lives and as leaders in the religious communities in the U.S., we understand well the pressures you must be facing to tone down your message so that you can win the election and then later be more courageous in challenging major assumptions in American public discourse that have been inserted there by a powerful conservative assault for the past thirty years by conservatives and champions of the elites of wealth and power in this country.

Others have articulated elsewhere why "toning down" or "moving to appeal to the Center" is a politically disastrous strategy, not only because it passivizes the youth who momentarily thought that something new was happening in American politics and who might otherwise return to apathy when they see you "playing the game" the same old way, but also because it generates despair among all sections of the population that had momentarily allowed themselves to hope that America might become under your presidency a society that unequivocally supported a politics of peace and justice. People who thought that they would vote for you as their peace candidate who seemed more unequivocal than others about ending the war in Iraq, for example, may become less enthusiastic about a candidacy that now calls for escalation of the war in Afghanistan and talks about giving Iranians ultimatums to be followed by green lights for military attacks.

We are writing you from a different angle, not as your election strategists, but as people of faith whose primary allegiance is to be prophetic witnesses to the ethical vision articulated in the holy texts of our religion and the elaboration of those religious traditions over the course of the past two thousand years. It is our view that America needs "a New Bottom Line" so that both corporations and non-profit institutions, social practices, legislation, government activities, and even our own personal life activities should be deemed "rational, productive, or efficient" not only to the extent that they maximize money, material security, power or gratification of our sensual desires but also to the extent that they maximize love and caring, kindness and generosity ethical and ecological sensitivity, enhance our capacities to see others as embodiments of the sacred and enhance our capacity to respond to the universe with awe, wonder, and radical amazement at the grandeur of Creation.

It is from that perspective that we appeal to you to fulfill the promise and the hopes you raised in the early months of your campaign, and to sharpen the distinctions between you and past politics by articulating new principles that would govern your presidency. In particular, we call upon you to (unequivocally and persistently in your public appearances and ads) call for:

*Replacing the strategy of Domination or Power Over others that has shaped American foreign policy in the past with a new approach that gives at least equal weight to "A strategy of Generosity and Caring for others" (for example as manifested by the Global Marshall Plan suggested by the Network of Spiritual Progressives www.spiritualprogressives.org). You should not allow the public discourse to push you into having to prove who will be the most effective candidate for running the next set of wars, but instead insist that the entire stragtegy of getting Homeland Security is seriously flawed unless it is based on two legs, one the strong military defense of our interests, and second on the strong commitment to ending global (and domestic) poverty, homelessness, hunger, inadequate education, inadequate health care, and repairing the global environment (please see House Res. 1078 introduced by Keith Ellison and endorsed by nineteen other Congresspeople for some helpful language in this regard-it endorses our version of The Global Marshall Plan).

*Rejecting the notion of armed struggle with Iran and opposing any military blockade of Iran that would then given the Iranians a reason to attack (in response to actions that are universally understood as acts of war), which in turn would provide the pretext for a war, either before or after the U.S. elections. You should publicly call on the Bush Administration from taking any provocative actions that might lead to military conflict before the next Administration takes office.

*A presidential Order that forbids and criminalizes torture and the direct or indirect aiding or abetting of acts of torture on the part of the U.S. , directs the U.S. military to abandon Guantanamo prison and end the activities of the School of the Americas related to training people in South and Central America in the techniques of counter-insurgency and torture, and directs the next Attorney General to explore ciminal charges against those who have violated US or international law in regard to torture.

* A commitment to make saving our global environment a top priority not only through encouraging individual and corporate environmental responsibility, but by alerting the American public to the full scientific evidence about the degree of threat to the survival of the planet that is likely unless we make major changes in the way use the resources of our planet, how we decide what products should be produced and how, and how we decide what items to consume. Tell the American people what the planet faces if the US and oather countries including China don't make a huge global effort to reverse the patterns of destruction that are already endangering our planet.

* Affirming the need for an American health care system that is based on the principle that we have an obligation to care for each other, not on the need for the health care profiteers to make a good return on their investments.

*Affirming as a guiding principle for American society in the 21st century that we have an obligation to care for each other, and that this obligation requires a rethinking of many aspects of American law, American corporations, government programs, education, and persona life, and that you will use your time in office to encourage this new ethos.

* Calling on schools to actively engage in teaching students the skills of caring a.for each other b. for those stuck in poverty or homelessness or hunger c. the disabled d. our senior citizens. e. for their own health and their bodies g. for the environment. This should include teaching about "non-violent communication" and positive negotiation skills, but also teach about the various religious and secular traditions that have made "caring for others" central to their teachingts, or have made awe and wonder at the grandeur of creation part of their approach to protecting the environment.

We are firmly convinced, Senator Obama, that these are ways of thinking about what is needed in America that are unlikely to succeed unless you build a strong foundation of support for them during your campaign when your statements have a chance of reaching the American people in a less filtered way than they will once you are elected. By articulating this kind of thinking now, you will not only strengthen the possibility of mobilizing parts of the electorate who have given up on politics altogether, but you will also be serving God in a way that is necessary at this historical moment.

Your advisors may warn you of political dangers. We think the opposite. But as we say, our calling is not to be your political practitioners, but to provide you with the kind of ethical and prophetic voices that you need to hear.

Finally, if you are elected, as we very much hope you will be, and as we ourselves will try to help make happen by building support for you, we urge you to meet with us during your presidency to hear the voices not of religious cheerleaders, but of those who dare to speak truth to power even when that power, as your own, is mostly for the good and mostly in service of the God of the universe. It is precisely because we believe in you and your strong ethical and religious commitment that we are daring to write this to you, even though we know that its impact might be to make it less likely that your advisors will ever allow us to connect with you directly once you are elected.

With respect and blessings,

(all organizations listed for identification purposes and do not imply organizational endorsement of this letter)
Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun and Chair, The Network of Spiritual Progressives and author of The Politics of Meaning and of The Left Hand of God
Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister, Executive Director of Benetvision: A Resource and Research Center for Contemporary Spirituality, and author of Welcome to the Wisdom of the World, and of The Gift of Years, and dozens of other books on Christian Theology
Rev. Tony Campolo, Chair, The Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education, and author of dozens of books including Red Letter Christians and The God of Intimacy and Action.
Father John Dear, S.J. is a Jesuit priest and author of Jesus the Rebel and A Persistent Peace
Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Chair, The Shalom Center and author, Seasons of Our Joy and These Holy Sparks

(above are the initiators of this

plus
(The Rev. Canon) John C. Fowler Episcopal priest
Donald Moore, S.J.
Rev. Dr. Bobbie Groth
Rev. Jarrod Cochran The Progressive Christian Alliance
Rev. James Willems, associate pastor Our Lady of Light, Ojai CA
Rabbi Jay Heyman Kol Hadash Community Albany, CA

Notorious Behavior

2008-07-06T20:44:00.009-04:00

I have just watched the classic Hitchcock thriller Notorious again. Ingrid Bergman plays Alicia Huberman, the daughter of a German-American convicted of treason in 1946. Cary Grant plays American intelligence agent Devlin, whose assignment is to convince Alicia to go to Brazil and infiltrate a group of neo-Nazis with ties to her father, with whom she has severed ties because of his treason.

Alicia agrees to cooperate with the intelligence agency, and she and Devlin have an affair as they travel to Brazil. Devlin learns that her assignment is to seduce Alexander Sebastian (played by Claude Rains), who had previous ties to Alicia's father and who had shown romantic interest in her in the past. Devlin protests to his supervisors that Alicia would never agree to such an arrangement but is told to let her decide. He does just that, declining to give Alicia any reasons not to take the assignment. It is obvious to the viewer that both are hoping the other will put a stop to it, but neither does. It is only after Alicia marries Sebastian that Devlin admits to himself that he has been in love with her.

Each person had been putting the other to the test, hoping that the other would say no to the notorious behavior that the agency was expecting Alicia to engage in. Each was secretly longing to be loved by the other but was afraid to express this longing. Devlin was almost daring Alicia not to go along with this, and Alicia was almost daring Devlin to tell her not to do it. There were many references by the other agents about Alicia's lack of character, and it was simply assumed that she would do what they wanted.

I think about love that puts the beloved in the position that almost forces scandalous behaviour in order to prove that love is being returned. We do that all the time in our human relationships: "Prove to me that you love me by doing this or not doing that." This dynamic was unspoken but very well communicated to the viewer by the master visual artist Hitchcock.

The biblical book of Hosea tells about a very different kind of love that God has for Israel. Hosea says that God has told him to marry a prostitute named Gomer in order to symbolize Israel having been unfaithful to God. The two have children, with symbolic names of judgment; the last is apparently not Hosea's, as he names a Hebrew word that means "Not mine."

God tells Hosea to divorce Gomer as a symbol of the heartbreak God has at Israel's unfaithfulness. As time passes, God tells Hosea to find Gomer and take her back. He has to pay for her, as she has either fallen into slavery or a lover demands payment to release her. Hosea exhibits scandalous behavior to symbolize what God is willing to do to regain the love of Israel, even though convention demands a divorce and judgment. Hosea is the "talk of the town" for marrying a prostitute who unsurprisingly ends up being unfaithful to him and for then buying her back after divorcing her.

I am drawn to the similar relationship between two other movie characters, that of Forrest Gump and his Mama. In order to get Forest into "regular" school, even though his IQ is below the cut-off, Mama beds the school's Principal. She is willing to be scandalous or notorious for the benefit of her son.

The Incarnation has such a notorious ring to it. For Greeks and Jews alike, a god who becomes flesh is scandalous. The Jewish understanding of God had been thoroughly monotheistic for centuries at the time of Jesus; it was unthinkable that a human being could be God in the flesh. The Greek philosophical understanding of God was not like the popular mythological conceptions; rather, God is that which is perfect Form, Ideal. Anything in this world is a shadow of the perfection of the world of Forms or Ideals, God being the highest in that world. An incarnation of that God was unthinkable. The God revealed in the New Testament engages in this notorious behavior and, in the words of the Nicene Creed:

For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven;
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and became truly human.
International Consultation on English Texts

(I'm not trying to say that the God of the New Testament is not the same as the God of the Old Testament but that the Incarnation was a new way of understanding that selfsame God.)

In the early church and still in the Eastern Orthodox Church, this doctrine of Incarnation was closely tied to that of Theosis: God became human so that humanity can become divine. In this understanding, salvation is not simply getting into heaven; it is rather being transformed into what God is. The philosophical scandal was that earthly things could be perfected like Forms, like God. God engages in notorious behavior in order to save humanity, and Jesus lives this mission by likewise engaging in scandalous behavior: eating with sinners, touching lepers, talking to women, letting women sit at his feet as a rabbi would let his disciples.

Salvation—theosis—consists of loving people enough to be notorious, enough to break conventions for the sake of people, in order to challenge the existing order for people and for their salvation. Remember that I'm not talking heaven when I use this word. I'm not talking about converting people to Christianity but to the way of Christ, which exemplifies God's scandalous behavior for the sake of humanity. The aspects of Christianity encompassing human relations emphasize acts of personal compassion and social justice. I'm certainly not living this way perfectly, but I'm looking for a community, even a virtual one, in which we can help one another walk in this way, even when it makes other people talk about us behind our backs.

Responses to Supreme Court's Gun Control Ruling

2008-07-04T22:32:00.007-04:00

Religious groups are responding to the Supreme Court's recent ruling that Washington, D.C.'s, ban on handgun ownership is unconstitutional. My own United Methodist Church, long a proponent of gun control, in its 2004 official statement on gun violence, "call[ed] upon all governments of the world in which there is a United Methodist presence to establish national bans on ownership by the general public of handguns, assault weapons, automatic weapon conversion kits, and weapons that cannot be detected by traditionally used metal-detection devices." Although the statement provides no spiritual or theological rationale, it makes reference to a program entitled Communities of Shalom, whose own website has a section on a "Biblical Understanding of Shalom":

The Biblical understanding of shalom (Hebrew word for peace), is not merely the absence of conflict but everything that makes for people's highest good. It works toward hope and wholeness in which people, individually and collectively, experience health, prosperity, security, oneness with nature, and spiritual renewal. In John 14:27, Jesus, in one of his final moments with his disciples, offers peace....not as the world gives but as God gives (NRSV). Shalom is the transforming power of God at work through the church in individuals and the community.

More recently the General Conference of The United Methodist Church, the body that speaks for the entire denomination, in April of this year updated the official statement to say:

No appeals to individual autonomy are sufficient to justify our church’s ignorance of this threat. The need to prevent the incidence of firearm-related injury and death is an issue of increasing concern and a priority public health issue. The United Methodist Church is among those religious communities calling for social policies and personal lifestyles that bring an end to senseless gun violence.

Based on the official position on gun violence, the denomination's Board of Church and Society and Board nf Religion and Race, have issued a joint response, decrying the Supreme Court ruling.

I myself was raised in a household with guns. My parents owned shotguns, rifles, and handguns. I was given a small .22 caliber rifle at the age of twelve or thirteen, and I occasionally would use my father's shotgun when I would go hunting with friends. I never killed anything, and I did not particularly enjoy the activity.

At the age of sixteen or seventeen, I was shooting targets with a friend. I was using the hood of my parents' car as a surface to reload a small handgun belonging to my friend. As I was loading it, the gun went off, denting the car's hood as the bullet struck it with a glancing blow. I was very shaken at this and was uncertain exactly how it had happened; I had been around guns all my life and knew how to handle them, yet an accident had occurred, thankfully with no real consequences.

At some point, my father gave me a shotgun that had been owned by his father. The gun was certainly old, and it was uncertain whether it could be fired. I never attempted to find out.

When I turned twenty-one, I was preparing to marry less than a month away. On my birthday, my father gave me a handgun, a .357 magnum, saying that I needed to be able to defend my family. Indeed, I can recall getting the gun and checking out my lawn, one night when I heard something outside. I found nothing amiss in the lawn and hesitate to consider what might have happened if it had turned out otherwise.

I started seminary at the age of twenty-five, having been exposed to and delighted with a critical study of religion that caused me to reconsider the conventional faith of my Bible Belt upbringing. In seminary I encountered lots of different Christian perspectives and wholeheartedly became a liberal Christian, both theologically and socially.

My wife and I decided that our young son would not be allowed to play with guns. One day, when he was old enough to think about such things, he asked me whether I owned any guns. I thought for a moment and said, "Not any more." I immediately gave my guns back to my father. He said he would hold them for me until I decided I wanted them back. That was almost twenty years ago, and I have not seen fit to bring guns back into our household.

My son is in college now, and he has his own ideas that challenge those he has learned at home. That's perfectly fine, but I have never regretted the decision my wife and I made to remove firearms from our home, which was always a place where our family has striven for shalom.

The Relevance of War and Other Domination Paradigms

2008-07-04T19:17:00.005-04:00

As part of its "Seven Burning Issues" series, Relevant magazine's web site has asked several well-known Christian leaders the following questions: "As Christians in the midst of a nation at war, how do we respond?" Respondents include Jim Wallis, N.T. Wright, Brian McLaren, Nancy Ortberg, Steve Brown, Shane Claiborne, Cindy Jacobs, and Church Colson.

Wallis's answer includes the insight that "[f]inal judgment over whether or not a war is just should never be left to governments. It should be left to the moral discernment of the global Body of Christ." He points to American evangelicals' initial support of the war with Iraq and claims a "disconnect" between the American church and the rest of the Christian world. He blames this difference on "the cultural captivity of the Church in America."

McLaren wants to reframe the question by broadening it: "Knowing that America is the richest and most powerful nation in history, what special concerns should we have about how our nation uses its power? What does Jesus say about power and how it should be used? Would we like to give [our children] a world where our nation has gone to war and killed thousands or millions of Muslims in an effort to increase our own security?"

Claiborne reports that the overall message of Christian soldiers having experienced war in Iraq is that "I feel like I’m trying to serve two masters, the cross and the sword, and my arms are not big enough to carry both of those."

By and large, the American Christians I have known are indeed, as Wallis charges, "Americans first and Christians second." The rhetoric is the opposite, but living a personal life or supporting social policies that mirror what are evident to me as Jesus' priorities is seen to be unrealistic. More often than not, being a good American and a Christian are simply conflated with nationalistic values purporting to be gospel values.

Americans give more lip service to religion than other so-called "developed" nations, but it seems to me that this religion rarely calls conventional understandings into question. One of Jesus' roles was that of the wisdom teacher, but, rather than legitimating conventional wisdom, he was continually challenging such conventional wisdom and offering an alternate vision.

In many situations, religion functions adequately as the legitimation of existing power structures. In our own situation, however, I believe that religion functions best to challenge existing paradigms, paradigms that are not even recognized as artificially produced, and to offer a new vision for what life can be. Jesus called this life "the kingdom of God"; perhaps a better translation of that for our times would be "God's commonwealth." A commitment to God's commonwealth eschews violence, competition, and domination and denounces any vision of common life that lifts any of these to redemptive status.

An Open Letter to Senator Obama

2008-07-03T20:43:00.003-04:00

A group of Barack Obama supporters, distressed at his support for a FISA bill currently under consideration in the Senate, has created a group on Obama's own web site to mount a protest. Since its inception eight days ago, the group, called "Senator Obama - Please Vote NO on Telecom Immunity - Get FISA Right," has become the largest group on the website, currently with over 18,000 members. Concerned that Obama is supporting the legislation's immunity for telecommunication companies and its broadened powers for warrantless wiretapping, leaders of the group have written an open letter to Obama.

As a United Methodist, concerned about civil liberties, I share the group's intentions (and, in fact, joined the group when it was just a few thousand strong). As articulated in the denomination's Social Principles, the people of The United Methodist Church "hold governments responsible for the protection of the rights of the people . . . to the right to privacy. . . . We also strongly reject domestic surveillance and intimidation of political opponents by governments in power and all other misuses of elective or appointive offices."

Because I think the use of governmental power is a spiritual question, I am reproducing the open letter written by leaders of the aforementioned group of concerned Obama supporters.

An Open Letter to Senator Obama

From the 15,000+ (and rapidly growing) members of the my.BarackObama.com group

"Senator Obama – Please Vote NO on Telecom Immunity – Get FISA Right"

PLEASE REPOST WIDELY!
recommended tags: fisa, Obama, myBO, getfisaright
and once you do, please add the link to the open letter repostings page

Dear Senator Obama,

On October 24, 2007, your campaign spokesman said, "To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies."

On June 20, 2008 you said, of retroactive immunity, "I will work in the Senate to remove this provision so that we can seek full accountability for past offenses."

As the largest grass-roots group on your campaign website, my.BarackObama.com, and in the spirit of your open/responsive government campaign pledges, we wish to share our ideas for how we may work together to further the goal of eliminating retroactive immunity from the FISA legislation scheduled for debate in the Senate next week. Although this is only one of the problems we see with legislation which allows the government to wiretap the communications of its citizenry without a warrant, it's the area we think we can help you with the most.

First, Senator Obama, we ask that you make the same tools that we used to call undecided voters in Iowa and New Hampshire available for us to call our fellow citizens in West Virginia, Nebraska, Delaware, Florida and other states that have Senators committed to voting against the amendment that would strip telecom immunity. You have the tools and we have the people power. Together, we are confident we can bring Change; we can make the government listen to the people instead of the telecom lobbyists.

Second, Senator Obama, we ask that you attend the Senate debate and schedule floor time to speak about the violence done to the rule of law when Congress retroactively immunizes the illegal conduct of a special interest. We know you understand that justice should not be sold to the highest special interest bidder; we also know that you can persuade other Senators that are not so clear on the issue. Of course, if you do this, our committed members will surely capture the video of your inspiring oratory, load it to YouTube and spread your words to our friends and family far and wide. We trust in your ability to bring a new way of doing business to Washington and look forward to helping you make that Change a reality.

Senator Obama, the my.BarackObama.com caption reads, "I'm asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington… I'm asking you to believe in yours." We're ready to put these words into practice

Thank you.

The 15,000+ (and rapidly growing) members of

"Senator Obama – Please Vote NO on Telecom Immunity – Get FISA Right"

San Francisco to Provide Health Care for All Uninsured Adults

2007-09-20T20:56:00.000-04:00

The New York Times reported last week that the city of San Francisco will begin to provide health care for all uninsured adults. This does not address the plight of the underinsured, and I am not certain whether children are already covered, but it is definitely an impressive move by a local government to provide what The United Methodist Church calls "a basic human right."

Check out this list of official United Methodist statements:

U.S.-Paid Mercenaries Kill 8 in Iraq

2007-09-20T17:00:00.000-04:00

The New York Times today reported that employees of the private security company Blackwater USA, contracted by the United States government, fired on and killed at least eight Iraqi citizens on Sunday. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki called the incident "a crime," yet such private security companies are exempted from prosecution under current Iraqi law.

Regardless of the circumstances (and I recognize that I have no inside information or expertise by which to judge the circumstances of this particular incident), the use of mercenaries as proxy troops sets up an environment without accountability and violates the United Nations International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing, and Training of Mercenaries, a 1990 convention never signed by the United States despite calls by religious organizations including The United Methodist Church to do so.

True Majority Action is providing a web page where people can send Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice the following message:

We insist that you stop using Blackwater employees as State Department guards, and follow the Iraqi government's demand that Blackwater leave the country.

Users can send custom messages along with the standard message above.

CIA Ceases the Use of Water-Boarding

2007-09-20T13:53:00.000-04:00

ABC News reported last week that the CIA will no longer use the controversial interrogation technique called water-boarding. Most religious groups have statements against torture. For example, see the relevant portion of my own denomination's statement of Basic Freedoms and Human Rights in its Social Principles section of The United Methodist Book of Discipline: "

Furthermore, the mistreatment or torture of persons by governments for any purpose violates Christian teaching and must be condemned and/or opposed by Christians and churches wherever and whenever it occurs.

The Bush administration has held that the United States does not torture but instead utilizes aggressive interrogation techniques on terrorism suspects for the purpose of securing the safety of American citizens. Others say water-boarding is an act of torture.

No United States legislation specifically mentions water-boarding, but federal law (18 U.S.C. § 2340) defines torture as

an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control. . . .

This law further defines "severe mental pain or suffering" to include "the threat of imminent death." Such a threat is at the heart of water-boarding, as interrogators stuff a cloth in the mouth of the person being interrogated and pour water into the cloth. When the person being interrogated breathes, the sensation of drowning is simulated. In fact, drowning can occur if the technique is not stopped. It is precisely the fear of death that causes people to "confess."

The following video, from Crooks and Liars, shows a controlled water-boarding incident. Judge for yourself whether this is torture.

The CIA claims to have banned this practice, but with such little oversight in this administration, who knows what is really taking place and where it is happening?

Join the United Church of Christ's Petition for Peace

2007-09-19T23:56:00.000-04:00

The United Church of Christ is hoping to gather 100,000 electronic signatures for a petition for peace to be delivered to Washington next month. The petition is compatible with the stand of The United Methodist Church (the denomination to which I belong), and I have therefore signed. I encourage you to read and to consider adding your own signature:

Along with thousands of United Church of Christ members and supporters, I call for an end to the war in Iraq, an end to our reliance on violence as the first, rather than the last resort, an end to the arrogant unilateralism of preemptive war.
I call for the humility and courage to acknowledge failure and error, to accept the futility of our current path, and I cry out for the creativity to seek new paths of peacemaking in the Middle East, through regional engagement and true multinational policing.
I call for acknowledgement of our responsibility for the destruction caused by sanctions and war and a beginning to rebuild trust in the Middle East and around the world.
I call for repentance in our nation and for the recognition in our churches that security is found in submitting to Christ, not by dominating others.
I will join protest to prayer, support ministries of compassion for victims here and in the Middle East, cast off the fear that has made all of us accept the way of violence and return again to the way of Jesus. Thus may bloodshed end and cries be transformed to the harmonies of justice and the melodies of peace. For this I yearn, for this I pray, and toward this end I rededicate myself as a child of a loving God who gives "light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."