What-ifs are hardly worth the time, but sometimes, after a bad decision, or at least a decision that seems fraught with ill, it's worth while to indulge, if for no other reason than learning.
What if Bush hadn't pulled the trigger on Iraq, and instead, focused everything on the capture of Ben Laden?
Here are some of my thoughts.
Al Qaida would not be as potent as it is today, and Afghanistan and Pakistan might be more stable.
Israel and the Palestinian question would remain, but I wonder: would it be less volatile?
Iran might have taken care of Iraq, with another war, or something more clandestine to eliminate Saddam.
If not Iran, perhaps Saudi Arabia.
Or a stealth raid by Israeli commandos might have taken Saddam out.
Our debt-crisis would be far less.
The thousands of American soldiers returning home with severe emotional and physical injuries would be minimal.
And the nearly 6000 American deaths (Iraq and Afghanistan) would be considerable less.
Bush would have been able to claim credit for Ben Laden's capture or death.
Al Gore might have won.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Monday, July 23, 2012
More Religious Hooey from Glenn Beck
It seems that Glenn Beck and a Messianic "Rabbi," Jonathan Cahn from Wayne, New Jersey are now into reading Isaiah as a "harbinger" of things to come.
Here's my response:
Here's my response:
Bad Bible reading ... but, then, from the far right, there's plenty of it. Isaiah would be the first to protest the use of his material in this way.
What makes anyone think that all of the Bible is devoted to the United States? The Puritans and many others since then, and now David Barton and his "history" hooey, have tried to prove a divine status for the US, what with this being the Promised Land, "a new Israel" with a "manifest destiny." If an individual thought like this, they'd be labeled a hopeless narcissist.
Folks on the religious right have often the read the Bible as a "road map" for the future. They're in good company, so to speak. At the turn of the Millenium, (no silly, not the recent one, but the first - 1000), all kinds of foolish predictions about this and that and the end of the world, as well.
Throughout the 19th Century, English Millenarianism reached new highs, or lows, with predictions, all of which failed. The most recent and embarrassing example of this cockeyed thinking is Harold Camping.
Within all of this, bits and pieces worth considering: US arrogance, for sure, with our constant military adventures (we are the Empire), our mistreatment of Native Americans, our reliance upon slavery, the Jim Crow laws, our abuse of women and their rights, environmental abuse, our violence and our love of guns, our love and worship of wealth and the wealthy, our mistreat of the American Worker, our vast economic inequity, continuing racism and a host of other social ills. These are the sorts of things Isaiah highlights for Israel; these are the sorts of things highlighted by The Prophets in general, and by Jesus in the Gospels.
While all of this has some bearing on the US, none of it is intended for the US alone, as if we were special. "For God so loved the world" and the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE brought that chapter to a close.
God is no longer in the land business, either in Palestine or in the Northern Hemisphere. God is judging America, not because we're special, just because we are, as God judges the nations of the world, all of them, large or small. For the world belongs to God, and there is no Promised Land, there is no "new Israel," there is no "manifest destiny," except, "love one another as I have loved you."
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Greed, Presbyterians and General Assembly
Good Grief!
That's all I can say.
While GA was considering a motion regarding corporate greed, some misguided soul stood up and proclaimed, "Greed is necessary to our system. Without greed, it wouldn't work."
And then added, or perhaps was it someone else, "American Business is based upon two principles: greed and charity. Because I'm greedy, I'll start my business; and because I'm charitable, I'll give you a job."
At the local gathering of the Red Neck Twine Convention, I'd expect to hear this.
But on the floor of General Assembly, out of the mouths of presbyterians (please note the lack of capitalization), those who stand in the tradition of John Calvin and his profound and still applicable understanding of sin?
And if Calvin is a stretch.
Read the Book of James.
Listen to Jesus.
Check out the prophets.
Now, some thoughts about greed.
To suggest that the entrepreneurial spirit is driven by greed is an insult to millions of Americans who have started up companies, in order to build the better mousetrap, to be their own boss, to bring to fruition an idea, or just to do it.
All of these folks would be insulted to hear anyone suggest their motive is greed.
The motive is higher and better than that, and may even include the profit-motive, but most start-ups are done by folks with a good idea, and they'd be happy just to make a living and support their family.
So, what about greed?
As I have known it, greed flourishes in corporate offices on the 34th floor of anonymous office buildings in anonymous cities around the world. Greed flourishes when the bottom line and Wall Street demand stock performance and nothing else counts. Greed flourishes in such places where corporate heads have long lost touch with the gals and guys on Main Street, including the small business owner and small manufacturer. Greed is evident when decisions are made that cost millions of jobs, and millions in salaries and benefits, while protecting the wealthy, enhancing their profit-flow, and providing corporate jets and limos.
Yes, I have greed in my heart. We all do. But greed needs the 34th floor to truly flourish. All dressed up in Armani Suits and fine Italian Shoes, when a $1000 dinner is nothing but chump-change, and a quick trip to some exotic resort in South America is just another weekend away.
Greed is ripping to shreds the American Dream, because corporate structures have virtually consumed all the nation.
In days past, when even large companies were still owned by families, there were levels of accountability and kindness. But with ownership passing into the hands of stockholders around the world, with stocks being manipulated by Wall Street Jockeys who have never dirtied their hands on an assembly line or worked up a sweat other than in an expensive health spa, greed has finally found an environment where it can grow without competition, and grow it does.
How sad that a GA Commissioner would mouth such nonsense.
GA did the right thing on the motion, but my heart is grieved by the man who stood on the floor of GA and trumpeted the wonders of greed.
That's all I can say.
While GA was considering a motion regarding corporate greed, some misguided soul stood up and proclaimed, "Greed is necessary to our system. Without greed, it wouldn't work."
And then added, or perhaps was it someone else, "American Business is based upon two principles: greed and charity. Because I'm greedy, I'll start my business; and because I'm charitable, I'll give you a job."
At the local gathering of the Red Neck Twine Convention, I'd expect to hear this.
But on the floor of General Assembly, out of the mouths of presbyterians (please note the lack of capitalization), those who stand in the tradition of John Calvin and his profound and still applicable understanding of sin?
And if Calvin is a stretch.
Read the Book of James.
Listen to Jesus.
Check out the prophets.
Now, some thoughts about greed.
To suggest that the entrepreneurial spirit is driven by greed is an insult to millions of Americans who have started up companies, in order to build the better mousetrap, to be their own boss, to bring to fruition an idea, or just to do it.
All of these folks would be insulted to hear anyone suggest their motive is greed.
The motive is higher and better than that, and may even include the profit-motive, but most start-ups are done by folks with a good idea, and they'd be happy just to make a living and support their family.
So, what about greed?
As I have known it, greed flourishes in corporate offices on the 34th floor of anonymous office buildings in anonymous cities around the world. Greed flourishes when the bottom line and Wall Street demand stock performance and nothing else counts. Greed flourishes in such places where corporate heads have long lost touch with the gals and guys on Main Street, including the small business owner and small manufacturer. Greed is evident when decisions are made that cost millions of jobs, and millions in salaries and benefits, while protecting the wealthy, enhancing their profit-flow, and providing corporate jets and limos.
Yes, I have greed in my heart. We all do. But greed needs the 34th floor to truly flourish. All dressed up in Armani Suits and fine Italian Shoes, when a $1000 dinner is nothing but chump-change, and a quick trip to some exotic resort in South America is just another weekend away.
Greed is ripping to shreds the American Dream, because corporate structures have virtually consumed all the nation.
In days past, when even large companies were still owned by families, there were levels of accountability and kindness. But with ownership passing into the hands of stockholders around the world, with stocks being manipulated by Wall Street Jockeys who have never dirtied their hands on an assembly line or worked up a sweat other than in an expensive health spa, greed has finally found an environment where it can grow without competition, and grow it does.
How sad that a GA Commissioner would mouth such nonsense.
GA did the right thing on the motion, but my heart is grieved by the man who stood on the floor of GA and trumpeted the wonders of greed.
Tara Spuhler McCabe & and the PCUSA
Our duly-elected vice moderator, the Rev. Tara Spuhler McCabe, resigned yesterday, July 4, under a hail of gunfire - opps, I mean vitriolic criticism, bitter and mean-spirited attacks.
It's a sad day for the Presbyterian Church.
It seems that Tara presided at a same-gender wedding - oh dear, what is this world coming to?
And it was likely that charges would be brought against her, because law-abidin' pastors ain't supposed to deal with such things. No sirree bob!
I'm sad today for Tara, and for our church.
But I'm not surprised.
Christianity is a war-torn world. From theology to territory, to the two World Wars fought primarily by Christians against Christians, Christianity is more like Syria today than anything else. The peace of Christ is mostly an illusion, a tool used to clobber one another - "my peace is better and bigger than your peace."
And so it goes.
Did the liberals expected the conservatives to go along with this.
But the conservatives are in no mood for cooperation or tolerance.
And who can blame them?
In their world, everything is going to hell in a handbasket, and they stand fore-square on the truth, as they see it, and they're willing to go into any back alley anywhere and fight for what they believe to be true.
I would rather we sit down and reason with one another, but our world-views are totally different. Old School, New School, Luther and the Bishops, whatever - sure wish it could be another way, but not this side of the Parousia.
I wish Tara well, and well she will do.
Though the memories of these days, the strident attacks on her character and faith, the language and the bitterness, will all linger for a long time to come.
She's wounded, as anyone would be.
And from such wounds, grace ... even as into such wounds grace is poured.
Blessings Tara.
It's a sad day for the Presbyterian Church.
It seems that Tara presided at a same-gender wedding - oh dear, what is this world coming to?
And it was likely that charges would be brought against her, because law-abidin' pastors ain't supposed to deal with such things. No sirree bob!
I'm sad today for Tara, and for our church.
But I'm not surprised.
Christianity is a war-torn world. From theology to territory, to the two World Wars fought primarily by Christians against Christians, Christianity is more like Syria today than anything else. The peace of Christ is mostly an illusion, a tool used to clobber one another - "my peace is better and bigger than your peace."
And so it goes.
Did the liberals expected the conservatives to go along with this.
But the conservatives are in no mood for cooperation or tolerance.
And who can blame them?
In their world, everything is going to hell in a handbasket, and they stand fore-square on the truth, as they see it, and they're willing to go into any back alley anywhere and fight for what they believe to be true.
I would rather we sit down and reason with one another, but our world-views are totally different. Old School, New School, Luther and the Bishops, whatever - sure wish it could be another way, but not this side of the Parousia.
I wish Tara well, and well she will do.
Though the memories of these days, the strident attacks on her character and faith, the language and the bitterness, will all linger for a long time to come.
She's wounded, as anyone would be.
And from such wounds, grace ... even as into such wounds grace is poured.
Blessings Tara.
Friday, June 29, 2012
Organized Crime and America's 400
Investigating unions and the underworld, Robert F. Kennedy wrote in his 1960 book, The Enemy Within (cited in L.A. Noir, by John Buntin, 2009, p.244):
"[T]he gangsters of today work in a highly organized fashion and are far more powerful now than at any time in the history of the country. The control political figures and threaten whole communities. they have stretched their tentacles of corruption and fear into industries both large and small. The grow stronger every day," so wrote Robert F. Kennedy in his 1960 book, The Enemy Within, a study of organized crime in the 50s (cited in L.A. Noir, by John Buntin, 2009, p.244).
As I read Kennedy's description, it was as if I were reading an account of the 400 in America today - their tentacles have reached far and wide, and with growing power and confidence, they manipulate and threaten politicians with the goons, ruffians and thugs working for them (the t-bags and the NRA).
Folks like the Koch Brothers and their cabal threaten whole communities and are working feverishly to change the character of America wherein they can have a freehand to do as they please, and skim off every dollar they can for their own personal fortunes.
Is there a difference between today's Big Biz Boys and Girls and the organized-crime families of the 50s?
Power is power, and power always corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Only a strong Federal Government with regulatory powers (the enemy of the Wealth-Cabal) can contain Wall Street.
Wall Street has demonstrated an unwillingness, perhaps even an inability, to govern itself.
I suppose, like a hungry lion, we ought not be surprised when it acts out of hunger. Nor should we be surprised when rapacious Wall Street devours everything in its sight, including our Democracy.
And that's a crime against The People of America!
Monday, June 25, 2012
Saving Souls for Gloryland in Jaspar, Texas
The amount of violence tolerated by the Christian Church, committed and perpetuated by the Christian Church, is enough to make the Christian Story a lie, as least a lie as to how we've told it.
From the wars Christians have fought against Christians, from the colonial period of enslavement, going all the way back to Constantine and his conversion, when suddenly it became a glorious thing to be a soldier and fight for the Empire, with the promise that anyone who fights for "god and country" (and those two are always permanently stitched together) qualifies for eternal glory and the praise and gratitude of their nation.
Recently, the New York Times published an unnerving story about Jasper, Texas, made "famous" a few years back when three young white boys chained James Byrd, a black man, to a car and dragged him to death, June 27, 1998.
He was buried in Jaspar's one cemetery, a cemetery divided by an old rickety fence, torn down some months Mr. Byrd's death, as an act of reconciliation and racial unity.
Fourteen years later, Jasper's cemetery remains segregated, with whites up on the hill and blacks below, no longer divided by a literal fence, but now the fence of tradition.
"It's our tradition," one old white man says, for blacks to be buried below the hill.
Racial tensions have once again flared with the firing of Jaspar's first back police chief, Rodney Pearson, who's wife, Sandy, is white (oh oh!).
After his election, whites arranged for a successful recall of several black city councilman, replacing them with a white majority who then promptly fired Mr. Pearson.
I wonder about all the white churches in Jaspar.
Oh, that's right. I know what they're doing. They're busy "preaching Je-e-sus!" and "saving souls for gloryland."
I know how hard it is to grapple with social issues; I'm a pastor, and I know first-hand how entrenched attitudes are, like the demons of the New Testament - touch 'em, and they scream to high-heaven. They truly know who Jesus is, and want nothing to do with him.
Which brings me back to the first part of this essay - how the church came to ignore, or accept, and worse, approve of violence.
Christianity, as we know it, comes out of 1800 years of Empire and war … Christians fought Christians … Christians colonized and enslaved peoples around the world, … Christians cheered the sword and sent their children off to war … and there stood the clergy, with holy water and prayers … all for god and country … [from "There Will Be Blood"].
And as long as churches are busy preaching Jesus and saving souls for gloryland, what with programs and Bible Studies and VBS and displays of patriotic hoohah, the cries of blood shed and spilled upon the earth go unanswered (Genesis 4.10).
In God's own time, of course, but what about us?
Can we turn a deaf ear to the cry of blood rising up from the earth, blood that we have shed, either directly through our wars and inquisitions, or indirectly, by winking at the cruelty of others and our "traditions" of racial and ethnic intolerance?
It's a bloody business, for sure, and I, for one, would rather not have to deal with it, but then I have to carefully pick and choose the Scriptures I read and from which I preach. Not only pick and choose, but deform and misrepresent, in order to "save souls for gloryland."
From the wars Christians have fought against Christians, from the colonial period of enslavement, going all the way back to Constantine and his conversion, when suddenly it became a glorious thing to be a soldier and fight for the Empire, with the promise that anyone who fights for "god and country" (and those two are always permanently stitched together) qualifies for eternal glory and the praise and gratitude of their nation.
Recently, the New York Times published an unnerving story about Jasper, Texas, made "famous" a few years back when three young white boys chained James Byrd, a black man, to a car and dragged him to death, June 27, 1998.
He was buried in Jaspar's one cemetery, a cemetery divided by an old rickety fence, torn down some months Mr. Byrd's death, as an act of reconciliation and racial unity.
Fourteen years later, Jasper's cemetery remains segregated, with whites up on the hill and blacks below, no longer divided by a literal fence, but now the fence of tradition.
"It's our tradition," one old white man says, for blacks to be buried below the hill.
Racial tensions have once again flared with the firing of Jaspar's first back police chief, Rodney Pearson, who's wife, Sandy, is white (oh oh!).
After his election, whites arranged for a successful recall of several black city councilman, replacing them with a white majority who then promptly fired Mr. Pearson.
I wonder about all the white churches in Jaspar.
Oh, that's right. I know what they're doing. They're busy "preaching Je-e-sus!" and "saving souls for gloryland."
I know how hard it is to grapple with social issues; I'm a pastor, and I know first-hand how entrenched attitudes are, like the demons of the New Testament - touch 'em, and they scream to high-heaven. They truly know who Jesus is, and want nothing to do with him.
Which brings me back to the first part of this essay - how the church came to ignore, or accept, and worse, approve of violence.
Christianity, as we know it, comes out of 1800 years of Empire and war … Christians fought Christians … Christians colonized and enslaved peoples around the world, … Christians cheered the sword and sent their children off to war … and there stood the clergy, with holy water and prayers … all for god and country … [from "There Will Be Blood"].
And as long as churches are busy preaching Jesus and saving souls for gloryland, what with programs and Bible Studies and VBS and displays of patriotic hoohah, the cries of blood shed and spilled upon the earth go unanswered (Genesis 4.10).
In God's own time, of course, but what about us?
Can we turn a deaf ear to the cry of blood rising up from the earth, blood that we have shed, either directly through our wars and inquisitions, or indirectly, by winking at the cruelty of others and our "traditions" of racial and ethnic intolerance?
It's a bloody business, for sure, and I, for one, would rather not have to deal with it, but then I have to carefully pick and choose the Scriptures I read and from which I preach. Not only pick and choose, but deform and misrepresent, in order to "save souls for gloryland."
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Elephants in the Room - by Charlotte Ellison
Dear Blog Readers,
A good friend of mine, the Rev. Charlotte Ellison, Grand Rapids, MI, offers the follow reflection on life and events in the Reformed Church of America.
Those of us in the RCA are spending a good bit of time talking about "unity" this Synod season--it all rests in identity, though--who are we, where do we receive our identity from, what is diversity and what is a basic distortion of our identity--do we most faithfully resemble our Lord when we protect ourselves from any variant in the interest of purity or do we most faithfully reflect our Lord when we go forth with an imitation of his engagement of the world, his apparent acceptance of people of many conditions and his welcoming them to a place of forgiveness, grace and acceptance.
I think there is always a temptation to confuse "unity" with "uniformity", always a need to project our sense of purity onto the image of Jesus' desire to call all to fellowship with his heavenly Father, always the temptation to "defend the faith" in a way that undeniably resembles the Pharisees and always a strong human impulse to be carried by those factors and hidden currents of our own unrevealed human psyches, projecting into Jesus those "imperatives" of our own fragile selves.
The hidden elephant in the room, in my opinion, has less to do with our openness to women in office (now thirty years in, and still contested), our position regarding homosexuality (do we offer hospitality and healing acceptance or do we participate in the persecution of anathema for the protection of the purity of the body), do we continue our exchange with theologically kindred bodies (sharing Reformed roots but with different histories) or do we narrowly define those "pure" enough to fellowship with as those who have even more strict standards of "purity" and closed communion.
I think the elephant in the room is our commitment to an identity that has little if anything to do with our Christian identity--our love of sectarianism, the ethnic roots of this particular tribe, the Dutchness which is nationalistic and nostalgic, a "brand" of theological virtue known for its scholastic rigor but not well regarded for its inclusiveness or gracious application of is magisterial theology of Grace.
I think the RCA struggles with a current of sectarianism that perpetually is oppositional, defining who is the "real" reformed communion by erecting ever more strident and exclusive marks of the true church and schizming into smaller and smaller communions that produce bigger fish in little ponds, the historic reward for leading the charge of schism.
It is sectarianism, and it is an offense to the gospel and a vanity and those further up its stream are not well positioned to instruct us on its benefits, so when we bemoan our communion with the PCUSA and long for closer ties with the Orthodox Presbyterians, for instance, that is a clear marker of this sectarian spirit at work, I think. Sectarianism is a terrible distortion of the Gospel and if you want to see its effects, one need look no further than North Ireland for examples of Orangemen in their oppression of Catholics in the name of the "true religion" through the propagating of an exclusive and utopian distortion of the church.
Our identity rests in one place--Christ Jesus, as revealed by his life and the witness of the whole Word of God, rightly interpreted, not appropriated with weak hermeneutics and self-styled but theologically ignorant leaders who are trying to "re-brand" their own version of what is "reformed" by simply asserting with vigor that it is. To be Reformed is to take the whole counsel of God and follow the Word of God wherever it leads, even if that reveals a long arc of justice, a widening inclusion into the family of God and a manifestation of Grace that is almost beyond our human ability to comprehend it. Reformed ever reforming. May God's spirit be powerfully present at Synod this year.
A good friend of mine, the Rev. Charlotte Ellison, Grand Rapids, MI, offers the follow reflection on life and events in the Reformed Church of America.
When I read her note, I was immediately struck by its relevancy and its depth of faithful thought.
As the RCA struggles with many of the issues confronting American Christianity, it's helpful to read some commentary from inside the Western Michigan Beltway!
Blessings Charlotte, and thanks for permission to republish your essay in this blog.
Tom Eggebeen
Los Angeles.
-----------------------------------
Those of us in the RCA are spending a good bit of time talking about "unity" this Synod season--it all rests in identity, though--who are we, where do we receive our identity from, what is diversity and what is a basic distortion of our identity--do we most faithfully resemble our Lord when we protect ourselves from any variant in the interest of purity or do we most faithfully reflect our Lord when we go forth with an imitation of his engagement of the world, his apparent acceptance of people of many conditions and his welcoming them to a place of forgiveness, grace and acceptance.I think there is always a temptation to confuse "unity" with "uniformity", always a need to project our sense of purity onto the image of Jesus' desire to call all to fellowship with his heavenly Father, always the temptation to "defend the faith" in a way that undeniably resembles the Pharisees and always a strong human impulse to be carried by those factors and hidden currents of our own unrevealed human psyches, projecting into Jesus those "imperatives" of our own fragile selves.
The hidden elephant in the room, in my opinion, has less to do with our openness to women in office (now thirty years in, and still contested), our position regarding homosexuality (do we offer hospitality and healing acceptance or do we participate in the persecution of anathema for the protection of the purity of the body), do we continue our exchange with theologically kindred bodies (sharing Reformed roots but with different histories) or do we narrowly define those "pure" enough to fellowship with as those who have even more strict standards of "purity" and closed communion.
I think the elephant in the room is our commitment to an identity that has little if anything to do with our Christian identity--our love of sectarianism, the ethnic roots of this particular tribe, the Dutchness which is nationalistic and nostalgic, a "brand" of theological virtue known for its scholastic rigor but not well regarded for its inclusiveness or gracious application of is magisterial theology of Grace.
I think the RCA struggles with a current of sectarianism that perpetually is oppositional, defining who is the "real" reformed communion by erecting ever more strident and exclusive marks of the true church and schizming into smaller and smaller communions that produce bigger fish in little ponds, the historic reward for leading the charge of schism.
It is sectarianism, and it is an offense to the gospel and a vanity and those further up its stream are not well positioned to instruct us on its benefits, so when we bemoan our communion with the PCUSA and long for closer ties with the Orthodox Presbyterians, for instance, that is a clear marker of this sectarian spirit at work, I think. Sectarianism is a terrible distortion of the Gospel and if you want to see its effects, one need look no further than North Ireland for examples of Orangemen in their oppression of Catholics in the name of the "true religion" through the propagating of an exclusive and utopian distortion of the church.
Our identity rests in one place--Christ Jesus, as revealed by his life and the witness of the whole Word of God, rightly interpreted, not appropriated with weak hermeneutics and self-styled but theologically ignorant leaders who are trying to "re-brand" their own version of what is "reformed" by simply asserting with vigor that it is. To be Reformed is to take the whole counsel of God and follow the Word of God wherever it leads, even if that reveals a long arc of justice, a widening inclusion into the family of God and a manifestation of Grace that is almost beyond our human ability to comprehend it. Reformed ever reforming. May God's spirit be powerfully present at Synod this year.
Charlotte Ellison
Grand Rapids, Michigan
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