Waving or Drowning?

The Neural Buddhists

Mike — Tue, 13 May 2008 07:47:47 -0700

David Brooks has a fascinating column in this morning's NYT.

In their arguments with Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, the faithful have been defending the existence of God. That was the easy debate. The real challenge is going to come from people who feel the existence of the sacred, but who think that particular religions are just cultural artifacts built on top of universal human traits. It’s going to come from scientists whose beliefs overlap a bit with Buddhism.

Read the rest here.

This is Home

Mike — Sun, 11 May 2008 16:41:53 -0700

John La Grue posts on his friends Jon and Tim Foreman who have written a song for Prince Caspian. First is the video for the song, and second is Jon introducing it and giving us some insight into its writing.

McLaren in the Post

Mike — Sun, 11 May 2008 08:43:40 -0700

The Washington Post has a brief interview with Brian McLaren:

Q: You reject the word liberal to describe yourself.

A: What do you mean by the term? If liberal means you believe ... you should help the poor, and your bias should be toward peacemaking rather than war-making, then I'm a liberal. But if liberal means that government can solve all of our problems and that secularism is better than faith, and that it doesn't matter what you do in your personal life and that morality is up for grabs, then I'm not a liberal. And I could say the same thing about conservative.

There's not a lot there, but it's worth a read.
(h/t to Dave)

Readin', Ritin', and Rwanda

Mike — Sat, 10 May 2008 07:16:22 -0700

Being sick this week hasn't done my writing much good, but it has allowed a lot of reading time. I've plowed through C.S. Lewis' Space trilogy, and my already immense respect for the man's abilities continues to grow. He was a literary genius. The 3 books are incredible; each very different, and very wild. Creatively and imaginatively, Lewis was a man before his time.

Now I'm left to figure out what reading material to bring with me on my trip to Africa. I've got some long flights, and some long layovers.

Here's what's in the pile already:

Jesus' Plan for a New World: The Sermon on the Mount (Richard Rohr)
Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism (Muhammad Yunus)
Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (Jeffrey Sachs)

That may not be the end of the list, but I definitely need a novel too. I'm thinking about World Without End (Ken Follett), which is apparently the sequel to the astounding The Pillars of the Earth. (Hopefully there's a paperback edition out there---this stuff adds up in space and weight, and I'm only taking one bag.)

Anybody want to suggest anything else?

Good News?

Mike — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:39:59 -0700

Some days you just can't hide from it.

Photographer Gary Chapman has a short video up on his blog.

Miriam Wanjekeche is 26 years old and giving her life to 10 adoptive children. In this 3-minute video she speaks about her children and the hope she has for them. The still photos were shot at her home as well as three other homes we visited.

Click here to watch the video, then come back for a moment.

Here's the thing we can't hide from. If the gospel you and I are representing doesn't have something to say to Miriam (beyond, "Its OK, Jesus knows your pain" and "Hey, don't worry, you and the kids will go to heaven when you die), if it isn't good news for Miriam, then it's just not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Most days we can pretend this isn't the case. Most days we can pretend that the gospel is about being nice people, believing the right things, living a good life, and going to a good church. Most days though, we don't have to face Miriam.

I'm going to think about that for a while.

Thanks

Mike — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:33:45 -0700

Brian Walsh has a post on gratitude we all need to read.

...Now I know, you might be thinking, “well this is all nice and sweet, but nice and sweet is not what we have come to expect from Empire Remixed.” And you’re right. Nice and sweet hasn’t got a snowball’s chance in hell in the face of empire.

But gratitude … that’s something different.

Read it here. Please. And thank you.

Africa-Bound

Mike — Wed, 07 May 2008 09:33:11 -0700

9 days and counting until I'm off to Africa... can't wait!

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the pot. I've set the widget up to close on May 11, so there still a few days left for you to participate if you would like to. To reiterate, All my expenses to and for the conference are already paid for - that is not what this is about. I know when I'm there I'll run into opportunities to help... there will be no end to them. (For instance, while I'm in Burundi we'll be visiting an orphanage. And when I say orphanage, I mean someone who has taken in about a dozen orphans out of the goodness of their heart, and now is faced with the daily challenge of making ends meet. These are the kinds of needs I'm talking about.)

If you'd like to join in, PayPal will take as little as $1, so there's no such thing as "too little." Just click on the ChipIn widget to the right. I promise to put your money directly into the hands of someone who needs it, and when I get back I'll let everyone know where and how their money is helping.

Thanks.

Caputo in Toronto

Mike — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:54:37 -0700

Speaking of summer school, a friend has alerted me to some great courses being offered this year by the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto. Sylvia Keesmaat's class is on right now... I would have loved to be there for that, and John Caputo will be in town later this summer.

There's some great stuff there, so take a look.

Christianity and the Political Economy of Capitalism

Mike — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:42:55 -0700

Time to continue the ever-so-slow march towards the Masters degree...

I've signed up for a Summer School course at Regent College, and I'm really looking forward to it. Since Paul Williams came to Regent a couple of years ago I've heard him lecture a few times, and I've been waiting for a course like this to come along.

This course aims to explore the relationship between Christianity and capitalism. It will consider capitalism both as an economic system and as arguably the dominant ideology of our age. The course is designed to meet four major objectives for students:

To develop a deeper understanding of capitalist economic thought and its historical and ideological origins in both the Enlightenment and the Christian faith;
To appreciate how compelling the logic of capitalism is even in the face of the widespread criticism that has been directed at it in recent times;
To explore the ways in which capitalism functions ideologically in modern culture and as such seeks to colonize and influence all areas of culture, beyond the commercial realm, including the church, the family and the polity;
To consider and develop what a transformative engagement of the gospel with modern capitalism might be.

INDS 583: June 30-July 11, 8:30-11:00 am
2 or 3 graduate credit hours

For the keeners in the audience you can download the full syllabus and check out the extensive reading list.

Loving Creation

Mike — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:55:54 -0700

It is not allowable to love the Creation according to the purposes one has for it, any more than it is allowable to love one’s neighbor in order to borrow his tools.
~ Wendell Berry, The Gift of Good Land (via Inward/Outward)

Jesus Wants to Save Christians

Mike — Sun, 04 May 2008 18:28:20 -0700

I'm sitting here listening to an Off-The-Map interview of Rob Bell talking about his next book, Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile... and the hair on the back of my neck is standing on end.

Good News (Updated)

Mike — Sun, 04 May 2008 08:24:27 -0700

Another quote for you from Shane Claiborne's Jesus For President.

This one resonates loudly, as I constantly seek the balance (ordinarily a term I despise) in protesting the actions of uncaring governments, and understanding that we are the solution.

Our president is not organizing another political party, nope... not even running with Nader on the Green ticket. Jesus is forming a new kind of people, a different kind of party, whose peculiar politics are embodied in who we are. The church is a people called out of the world to embody a social alternative that the world cannot know on its own terms. We are not simply asking the government to be what God has commissioned the church to be. After all, even the best governments can't legislate love. We can build hundreds of units of affordable housing (a good idea, by the way) and people still might not have homes. We can provide universal health care and keep folks breathing longer (another nice move), but people can be breathing and still not be truly alive. We can create laws to enforce good behavior, but no law has ever changed a human heart or reconciled a broken relationship. The church is not simply suggesting political alternatives. The church is embodying one.

The idea that the church is to be the body of Christ is not just something to read about in theology books and leave for the scholars to pontificate about. We are literally to be the body of Jesus in the world. Christians are to be little Christs--people who put flesh on Jesus in the world today. You are the only only Jesus some people will ever see. The promise of the church is this: none of us alone are Christ (that's blasphemy), but all of us together are Christ to the world (that's ecclesiology). (p.228, emphases mine)

UPDATE:

It's easy to have political views--that's what politicians do. But it's much harder to embody a political alternative--that's what saints do. (p. 235)

HopeMonger

Mike — Sat, 03 May 2008 13:26:41 -0700

mon·ger [muhng-ger, mong-] – noun

Chiefly British. a dealer in or trader of a commodity (usually used in combination): fishmonger.

I'm very fortunate to have a creative friend like David duChemin. On Thursday we were downtown catching up over a tea when I mentioned that I needed some new business cards. When David asked me what I wanted, I said I loved Africa, and I loved the word hope. The rest was up to him.

Here's what he came up with:

The image is his, the design is his.... the guy is a creative genius. He has a great eye, great technical skills, and great design talent. He may be on a blogging break at Fearfully Human, but his PixelatedImage photography blog is off the charts in popularity. Let me be blunt: If you work with an NGO, if you need work done at all you need to get in touch with David. End of story.

This image, btw, brings back a lot of memories. The Koro Abili IDP camp just outside of Gulu, Uganda, last March. Home to over 13,000 displaced Ugandans. I think this camp had been there for at least 10 years, so this guy was likely born there, and this small hut has probably been the only home he's ever known. We split into a couple of groups to tour the camp, and each group of a handful of muzungu's was accompanied by at least 100 kids. This little guy came to his door, undoubtedly to see what the fuss was all about. There's nothing like a parade to bring the kids out. James Pearson was not far away, having just showed us the Invisible Children bracelet work being done in the camp. 16 hours I will never forget, and now I'll relive it every time I look at the cards. And my fancy new splash page too. Can a redesigned blog be far behind?

One more photo for you - David and I in Rwanda. Dude, I am glad to be on the road with you:

Saturday Morning Communication

Mike — Sat, 03 May 2008 12:37:43 -0700

Sue and Jen are still in Bangkok so Pete and I co-captained the weekly Saturday Morning Delta House Waffle Breakfast & Cleaning. Daniel, L'il Sarah and Andrew (who probably didn't know what he was getting into when he slept over last night) worked hard.

The soundtrack for the morning was U2's Communication, which I think was a freebie for signing up from U2.com a while back.

City of Blinding Lights (Live from Chicago)
Vertigo (Live from Chicago)
Elevation (Live from Chicago)
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (Live from Milano)
Miracle Drug (Live from Chicago)
Miss Sarajevo (Live from Milano)
The Fly (Live from Chicago)
With or Without You (Live from Milano)

Outstanding... Miss Sarajevo is one of my favorites.

Pax Romana

Mike — Sat, 03 May 2008 08:19:12 -0700

"When the church takes affairs of the state more seriously than they do Jesus, Pax Romana becomes its gospel and the president becomes the Son of God. After all, what is the point of calling anything God if it does not also hold sway in every part of one's life---especially one's politics?

For Jesus and his followers, the central question was, How do we live faithfully to God? But then the church inherited a kingdom. And it wasn't the kind of servant kingdom Jesus imagined and incarnated, not the kingdom of the slaughtered Lamb; it was the dominant and coercive force in charge of the world, even in its pursuit of establishing "justice for all." Instead of faithfulness, the question was, How do we run the world as Christians?
(Jesus For President, P. 166-167)

All I Need

Mike — Fri, 02 May 2008 08:23:04 -0700

Seems like as good a follow-up to the previous post as any...

h/t to James

A Spending Culture

Mike — Fri, 02 May 2008 08:02:28 -0700

I was struck by this story in yesterday's NYTs:

Low Spending Is Taking Toll on Economy

By PETER S. GOODMAN
Published: May 1, 2008

For months, beleaguered American consumers have defied expert forecasts that they would soon succumb to the pressures of falling home prices, fewer jobs and shrinking paychecks. Now, they appear to have given in.

On Wednesday, the Commerce Department reported that the economy continued to stagnate during the first three months of the year, with a sharp pullback in consumer spending the primary factor at play.

You can read the rest here

Trust me, I understand economics... as much as any of us actually understand economics, that is. This kind of information is not new to me; it used to be my daily bread. But these days I'm learning to see differently, and what I see here is yet another example of how this consumer-driven culture keeps us in its clutches, and resists any attempt to think differently - to think "kingdomly", as it were.

The sad truth is if we don't keep buying more and more stuff the economy suffers. This is partly because we are addicted to growth as a measure of "progress."

And here's what we end up with. I'll pick on the United States because it's such a blatant example. We have the world's most indebted country, populated by highly indebted citizens with some of the worst savings rates in the world. We have the government of the world's most indebted country printing rebate cheques and sending them out to those indebted citizens. We have the leader of the world's most indebted country going on TV and begging those indebted citizens to go out and buy more stuff. Not to save the money. Not to pay down a little of the average citizen's $8,500 credit card balance. No, to go out and buy shit.

This way we can (hopefully) keep the system running. I couldn't see this back in my Armani suit days, but if it takes this kind of rigging to keep the thing afloat, I've got news for you: There's something wrong with the system.

Here's a thought: Take part of your rebate ~~cheque~~ check and give it away.

Carry on.

Quote of the Day

Mike — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:36:11 -0700

I'm re-reading We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families in anticipation of my trip back to Rwanda next month. It is a startling retelling of a horrific story, and I suspect at least some of my current insomnia is a result of the book. (Time to go listen to Andrew Johnston again.)

Rwanda had presented the world with the most unambiguous case of genocide since Hitler's war against the Jews, and the world sent blankets, beans and bandages to camps controlled by the killers, apparently hoping that everyone would behave nicely in the future.

The West's post-Holocaust pledge that genocide would never again be tolerated proved to be hollow, and for all the fine sentiments inspired by the memory of Auschwitz, the problem remains that denouncing evil is a far cry from doing good. (p. 170)

I'm anxious to go back and talk to friends there. I'm hearing anecdotally from those more familiar with the situation in Rwanda that things are actually getting worse, not better. I'm anxious to see for myself.

...denouncing evil is a far cry from doing good.

That'll preach on a whole lot of levels.

Hearts & Minds

Mike — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 21:48:32 -0700

A quick shout-out to my new friend Byron Borger and his crew at Hearts & Minds Books. These folks know books and are definitely worth talking to. Byron's got a great post on their blog about Global Peacemaking, with an excellent recommended reading list.

Andrew Johnston

Mike — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 21:34:15 -0700

I think this is the second one of these things I've posted.

Beautiful.