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You could never tell it from the chatter I hear. Of course, I spend most of my day around white middle-class people. Mostly it’s parenthetical, politically-loaded statements like, “if we still have medicare,” or “if inflation doesn’t get us.” But I can tell that there’s an undercurrent of fear for our country’s future, anxiety about national debt, etc. I would have figured that if anything, overall support for Obama would have gone down, given the tenor of media coverage. I live in Homewood, which in some ways is a model of the dynamic of Whitopia (people here even refer to it occasionally as “Mayberry”). There is plenty of diversity here, but there is also significant class and geographical segregation within the community.
So for you Alabamians and southerners - regardless of your political orientation - I’m curious about why you think this might be. 98% of black men and men voted for Obama back in November, and only 10% of whites. Yet according to the above survey, Obama’s approval rating is at 28% among white voters at the end of August.
Now, I know that approval ratings don’t always carry a lot of long-term significance. I’m just curious why. Thoughts?
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So, here are some of our favorite shopping places:
Trade for Change: This is the retail site for Global Mamas, which we have used several times. One of my favorite Sunday shirts is from Global Mamas.
Global Exchange: Pretty extensive site with lots of products. We’ve gotten a soccer ball and other miscellaneous gifts from this site.
Atfaluna: This is a school for deaf children in Gaza. They support themselves by making crafts. Get some nice gifts and support a great cause at the same time. We have given several dishes from Atfaluna as gifts.
UPAVIM: UPAVIM is a cooperative of Guatemalan women who are often the main breadwinners in their families.
SERRV International: We’ve gotten lots of stuff from SERRV, mostly through sales at local churches, gift shops, and at Lake Junaluska. Angela has a cool apron that I think we got from a SERRV sale.
No Sweat: We get shoes and T-shirts (like I need anymore T-shirts) from these folks. My favorite is the black “Human” T-shirt.
It’s nice to see that a lot of these websites are much more professional-looking and easy to navigate than they were several years ago. When we first started doing fair trade shopping, many of the sites we visited had downloadable .pdfs of scanned catalogs, or product lists and separate price lists.
Of course, another good alternative to buying crap that nobody needs is giving gifts in honor of people. The Heifer Project gives the gift of sustainable agriculture and encourages recipients to pass on the gift to others when their animals reproduce. You can give a gift in honor of someone to UMCOR, and help an area of the world that is struggling with disaster. Of course, it’s not as flashy, but you can always make a donation to your church or a local organization that does good work in the community in honor of someone.
If you remain unconvinced of the importance of shopping differently, allow me to point you toward this wonderful 20-minute online video, The Story of Stuff. The irony is that this Christmas, there will be lots of people buying plastic crap to put under the Christmas tree for their children, which was likely made by children who live in environments contaminated by the factories in which they work. I think there are better ways to celebrate Jesus’ birthday. Merry Christmas!
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Another problem I have with the usual reading is that we have to pretend to be surprised, and it becomes a story about how much we believe. Really, you know about Jesus, don’t you? He heals people, walks on water, and raises the dead. Are we supposed to be wowed that he can produce pita bread out of thin air?
So I want to put on my curmudgeonly preacher persona and wave my cane and yell at the kids singing Kum-Ba-Yah to get off my lawn. I really like Mark’s version more than John’s so I’ll start there.
1. In Mark’s version, Jesus invites the disciples to come away to a deserted place all by themselves. Mark says this twice, in 6:31 and in 6:32. Mark has a fairly conservative economy of words, so when he says something twice, he means it. Dripping with sarcasm, his disciples say, “hey, teacher. Since we’re here at this deserted place of yours, how about sending them away to get something to eat?” Nice relaxing spot you picked, Jesus! I love that Mark lets us see the disciples get sarcastic with Jesus.
2. Now, most preachers will say that this crowd is made up of the poor and downtrodden, and they don’t have any money, and the miracle is about feeding the hungry. Hogwash! These people have money. The disciples say plainly, “send them away so that they can buy themselves something to eat.” The text does not tell us they were poor, sad, chronically hungry, or anything of the sort. It says they were like sheep without a shepherd. I suppose because we think of sheep as fleecy white innocent creatures, we automatically go into churchy mode and think that the sheep need someone to take care of them and feed them.
But the “sheep without a shepherd” comment is a reference to 1 Kings 22:17, in which Israel’s army without its king is compared to “sheep without a shepherd.” This crowd is not a bunch of hungry people looking for food. This is the army of Israel looking for a king! They want leadership, not bread. Also, the feeding of the masses recalls Elisha’s feeding of his own disciples in 2 Kings 4:42. These aren’t a bunch of poor downtrodden people. They are a prophetic army.
3. I’m glad I wasn’t there. Had I been there, I would not be thinking charitable thoughts. Here come all these people, interrupting my intimate spiritual time with Jesus. I mean, they just ran around a lake in order to go hear this guy talk. Is there not a sensible person among these 5000 who thought, “hey, maybe I should pack a lunch?” This is Galilee, circa 30 AD. There are no drive-thru windows, people! Plan ahead! It’s part of being a grown-up!
4. In John’s version (6:5-7), the disciples’ testy exchange with Jesus’ is replaced with this laid-back Socratic dialogue. “Where are we going to buy bread for all these people?” Because in John, the disciples aren’t idiots and jerks (which is why I could never have cut it with John’s crew).
5. John gives us a little kid who has 5 barley loaves and 2 fish. In pulpits all over the country on Sunday, this little boy will be the hero of the story. I’m sorry, but does nobody else think that 5 barley loaves and 2 fish is a LOT of food for a kid to eat? Maybe if the kid is 6’2” and weighs 240 pounds, this would be a reasonable dinner. Right, right, someone is going to pull out some obscure historical reference that they were small loaves. Whatever. Just consider this: what if it isn’t his food? Is he the only one out of 5000 adults who packed a lunch? Or is he supposed to be delivering this food to someone else? I like to imagine that there’s one guy in the crowd saying, “hey! that’s the kid who I hired to go get my takeout!” Or maybe the kid drives up in a beat-up Honda hatchback. He gets out and approaches the crowd of 5000. He looks at the order slip in his hand and asks, “hey… somebody order a pizza?”
6. Preachers are going to be falling all over themselves to allegorize this story and explain what the miracle means and will miss possibly the most obvious part of the story: Jesus eats with 5000 people. He shares food with an army. Eating together is a sign of friendship, and sharing the same piece of food is way of declaring eternal loyalty, as when Judas dips his bread into Jesus’ dish in John 13:26. If you break your Twinkie in half and give me part of it, you have just declared that you and I are like family, and we have a bond that cannot be broken. The one who eats with hookers and seditionists and thugs just made himself friends with 5000 people at once, because they all shared the same food.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think this is THE point of the story. I don’t think there is only one right reading, and I don’t think it is simply a eucharistic allegory. But the militaristic language is there, the reference to Elisha’s disciples is there, and John ends the story with the people saying, “this is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.” The very next line is, “When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.” The prophet shows up, recruits an army, and leaves.
Edit: Ooh! Ooh! I’ve got another one. In Mark they sit on the grass in groups of fifties and hundreds. Go ahead, look up “fifties and hundreds” in your concordance. You’ll find it’s a reference to leadership and military organization in Exodus, Deuteronomy, and Kings.
]]>If you want a congregation’s tongues to follow with your tune
And sing and sway and give your song their best
Consider where emPHAsis on sylLABles will fit best
And avoid using… ... rests.
Don’t string clichés together and then call that a song;
Let metaphors connote a kind of grace.
So if you’re writing lyrics and you must rhyme “eyes” with “skies,”
I hope you stab your pencil in your face.
Lord you are more precious than silver
Lord you are more costly than gold
Lord you are more beautiful than diamonds
And nothing I desire compares with you.
Which is all fine and good, and it certainly has a pretty tune. But it struck me today as I was reading Proverbs that it’s an appropriated metaphor. The original text is a praise of Lady Wisdom:
Happy are those who find wisdom, and those who get understanding
for her income is better than silver, and her revenue better than gold
She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. (Proverbs 3:13-15)
Most congregations, of course, are far more comfortable addressing our hymns and love songs to THE LORD, who we will refer to in the masculine gender. I wonder, how many congregations would be comfortable singing a love song to Lady Wisdom? Look, it’s more Biblical, and it even fits the meter just fine. So why do the lyrics substitute THE LORD for Lady Wisdom?
Wisdom is more precious than silver
Knowledge is more costly than gold
Wisdom is more beautiful than diamonds,
And nothing I desire compares with her.
Egad!
]]>This agitation on the subject of extreme poverty comes mainly from mothers, school teachers, students, churchgoers. When it comes from spoiled rotten rich rock stars it gets more attention, but it’s much harder to take — particularly when those rock stars are Irish. We know that’s an absurdity. But so is a child dying of a tiny mosquito bite in the 21st century.
Love thy neighbour is not advice — it’s a command.
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