Pray for Obama - Psalm 109:8

By now, some of you have probably seen the promotion, “Pray for Obama” with a reference to Psalm 109:8, which reads: “May his days be few; may another seize his position.”

Rather cute, if you’re unhappy with Obama.

But no verse in the Psalms can ever be read out of its context: verse 9 reads, “May his children be orphans and his wife a widow.”

Verse 10 goes even further: “May his children wander about and beg; may they be driven out of the ruins they inhabit.”

And if you really want to read some exciting stuff, it goes on:

“May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil.

May there be no one to do him a kindness, nor anyone to pity his orphaned children.”

In other words, this is a prayer for Obama to die and for his children to suffer misery.

There’s nothing funny here.

To use this as a “prayer” is to slander everything Jesus gives us when he instructs us in prayer – e.g. “when you pray, pray like THIS” and then gives us “The LORD's Prayer” or the “Our Father” as it is called in the Roman tradition.

To take the Scriptures and to use them for such a mean-spirited political campaign calls anyone who cares about Scripture and prayer to raise the alarm.

It’s one thing to express political disdain for the President – this is a proud American tradition; but it’s another thing to pray for his death, that his children be orphaned and left penniless on the streets.

Yes, this in the Bible.

Everything is.

But Jesus reminds us that just because it’s there, doesn’t mean it’s of God. God, with infinite wisdom and trust, sees to it that everything is there in the story, and it’s up to us to read it carefully. With Jesus in our hearts, to choose a course of life that is filled with love and kindness, and even when we’re politically frustrated, to yet pray for one another, including our “enemies” – because God sees to it that needed rain falls on everyone (Matthew 5:43-48).

If you should see this “pray for Obama” campaign in an email, please don’t pass it on, and please don’t laugh, and please pray for the one who sent it to you.

We do well to heed Peter’s counsel (1 Peter 2:16): “Honor everyone. Love the family of believers. Fear God. Honor the emperor,” and the guidance of 1 Timothy 2: “I urge that supplications and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.”

What Would Really Happen?

What would really happen if we cleared the way and began to ordain, without question, GLBT persons, who, like all the rest of those ordained, would answer the basic questions of faith in Christ and vow a willingness to work with their colleagues to promote the gospel and to stand for justice?
What would really happen?
Would it be the end of the world as we know it?

Would the Bible fall and cease to be an endless source of wonder and challenge, bewiderment and blessing? Would folks no longer turn to its pages to see a mirror in which the horrors and hopes of the human journey are reflected? Would the 23rd Psalm no longer sing in the heart? Would the ageless promises of God's faithfulness and love no longer thrill the beleagured soul and tired traveler?
Would the gospel cease to be of value? Would the cradle and the cross become meaningless? Would the Apostles' Creed no longer tease and torment the proud human soul with a vision of life and God beyond our silly presumptions and arrogance?
Would the truth of Christ crucified, buried and risen no longer hold the heart and spur the imagination of humankind? Would no one ever again stand in the temple and proudly assert their superiority, and would there never again be sinner beating the breast in sorrow?
Would people stop praying and singing and loving and serving?

Would women and men no longer be called to ministry? Would there be no more deacons and elders and pastors and priests and rabbis and imams?
Would folks stop writing theology? Would there be no more sermons? No more worship? No more love?
What would really happen?

GLBT and Me

It's been some years since I worked my way through the questions and relevant Scripture and all things pertaining thereto ... well, not all, but a lot.

I made my decision prayerfully and, I hope, thoughtfully.

Yet, I find, upon reflection, that the values and experiences of my life played a role. For a number of reasons, I've always felt myself on the "outside" of things - as a child, we moved a good many times, I had a lot of allergy-related issues, I was overweight and a lousy athlete.

Oh well ...

Out of that was forged a sensitivity to the "outsider." Whatever else has shaped my life, this awareness has played a huge role in how I think and feel about justice and kindness and humility (sound familiar?).

Yes, yes, I know - some will suggest that I am giving much too much credence to my story, while they give the greater weight to Scripture and tradition. Yet, I disagree. For everyone I've ever met and known, the personal story is huge. To suggest that we surmount and transcend the personal is to engage in some slight-of-hand, and a contradiction of the manner in which God works in our very real lives.

My earliest memories are of God, and then, like C. S. Lewis, Christ became a part of that that mix in high school and was deepened considerably in college and seminary.

My life has revolved around God for ever, and Christ stands in the very center of my thinking and living ... though I very much appreciate Abelard, Anselm, as per Tillich, has the guts to address some of the deepest issues of the heart - alienation.

That we might no longer be alienated from God, and from one another.

So, without belaboring the point, I made my decision, and though not particularly adamant about it at first, the growing voices of ordination-opposition prompted me to speak out, because I wanted the world to know that Christians have a variety of views on this, and that some Christians favor GLBT ordination even as some oppose it.

I love the Lord and give thanks for my salvation.

And with that selfsame love, I try to welcome all who come my way.

I hope and pray that "my" church can resolve the issue - don't know how it'll be done, but I think the word "welcome" says it all for me.

Fox News?

A good friend of mine wrote the following note about Fox News, posted with his permission.

The Pros are the Cons!

The insinuation that Fox deserves equal time reveals the sophistry of their coverage. Relentless verbal conceits carve our attention away from priorities. See Capitalism. See Frontline: The Warning. We can pursue priorities or waste time chasing Fox phantoms?

My lesson from law school is: There is no  law. There are louder mouths and deeper pockets. Because governments have been displaced by corporations it is accurate to say that Rupert Murdock embodies a foreign empire draining treasure from those still under the misconception that citizens of the United States of America are protected from exploitation by corporations. The fracas over Fox is the ring in our nose that takes us away from the rape of the Greatest Generation, the usurpation of rewards from $87 Trillion in taxpayer funded R&D and IP by a handful of bonus bandits who have already sold it to the lowest bidder. (sic.) Instead of paying taxpayers a fair return on their investment the corporation con men default on employee retirement contracts and drain social security to cover their crimes. The Pros are the Cons.

Fox is the wolf in sheep’s clothing that keeps 300 million Americans from asking why their houses are now worth 20% less than they were in 1979. The entire housing inventory is now worth less than $6 Trillion. Last year’s (grossly understated) federal bailouts alone would have paid off all our mortgages. So where did the money go? It went to indemnify a handful of super-rich scoundrels from direct personal liability in their $58 Trillion unfunded insurance liability. But that was Warren Buffet’s estimate last November. Frontline totals the mortgage bank blended insurance fraud ten times higher than that. The Pros are the Cons. What does Fox say about fiduciary responsibility?

Until our feet are on the ground with this conversation and its consequences I consider any time given to Fox is more wasteful than smoking dope. I don’t inhale.

I stand with Obama.

Sarah Palin and Oprah

Now on Oprah ...

Good grief ... the Palin PR machine hard at work.

Reminds me of the balloon boy ... a balloon floating high in the air, but no cargo!

Wonder how long she can keep it afloat ... until we're all clear that it's just a giant political hoax.

But then there's a lot of hot air money out there - a whacko-capitalist-Jesus-in-your-face-Blackwater-let's-have-a-little-war kind of money, the result of Reagan tax cuts and tons of money borrowed from China to keep the balloon inflated and a stock market skewed to feed the greed of the few at the expense of the many.

Palin will continue to draw two kinds of folks: flat-out crazies who love to shoot wolves and other living things and the powerful elite who see her as a tool to further their cause of power for the powerful and wealth for the wealthy.

Does she have a clue that she's being used?

Or is her ego so bloated as to miss the reality?

Whatever ... sad, sadder, saddest.

Ohhh, what's that hissing sound?

Is the balloon leaking?

BTW, Palin has been invited to College of the Ozarks ... a fine school with a fine heritage ... but why Palin?

Check out my note to the school, and if you agree, send your own note.

Labor Unions for the Wealthy?

The economic news is shameful ... no, I'm talking about the crisis at hand, although that's a part of the picture - I'm talking about the rape of America: yes, a brutal word, for sure, but that's exactly what has happened in the last 40 years, as the wealthy have sucked the nation dry, draining off tons of money for their foolish life styles, extravagant investment schemes, furthering their strangle-hold on politics, the economy and even religion.

This fascist-like rape of the economy has resulted in the greatest transfer of wealth ever seen: from the pockets of the many to the pockets of the few.

America has suffered the downsizing of the means of production in our nation - starting with seamless pipe in Pittsburgh - in the mid-70s, when we were building the Alaska pipeline, America had already lost the capacity to manufacture 60-inch seamless pipe, and I ask why?

The sad mantra of big biz has been to blame the unions. This is just a bald-faced lie! Their greed is fault! And with the take-over of big biz by Wall Street, the pace of greed has accelerated to the speed of light, I'm afraid.

And along the way, our titans of business have feathered their own nests at the expense of The People. Yes, the People. What a quaint idea - The People. Of the people, by the people, for the people. Yeah, and the moon is made of cheese. Big biz and its government toadies have been at war with The People ever since FDR won a few rounds The People. Big Biz and its government goons set about dismantling the middle class for no other reason than Haman's decision to kill Mordecai and eliminate all the Jews in Persia. Why? Because Haman didn't bow and scrape before Haman, so Haman's pride was injured. Big Biz has always hated the unions, and it's a matter of foolish pride driven by a distorted sense of entitlement and greed.

The assault on the middle class is nearly complete, and America is more vulnerable than ever!

I write as a religious person, specifically a Christian.

And from the perspective of faith as I see it, all of this is shameful.

And now the latest news from the Census Department - the income gap widens even further.

This is a crime, and if it were committed by some little sleazeball on the street, we'd haul 'em off the hole and lock the door.

But these criminals are lionized and admired, although they've taken a few hits lately.

But they're well-protected; they sit on one another's boards and take care of each other. Talk about unions. THE WEALTHY HAVE THE MOST POWERFUL LABOR UNION IN THE WORLD, and they have a huge chunk of Congress and the Courts coming to their defense - check out how FedEx had laws passed to protect FedEx from organized labor.

The American economy will never recover until we bring justice to the table.

And what's justice, you ask?

The Apostle Paul had it all figured two millennia ago:

The one who had much did not have too much,
and the one who had little did not have too little.

There's always going to be gaps, but it doesn't have to be this wide. Indeed, it shouldn't be this wide.

An economy so badly divided against itself is fractured, and it's failing, and until we address this shameful injustice, the economy will continue to deteriorate overall and we'll witness the further decline, if not the disappearance, of the middle class.

We can do it.

We must do it.

Justice calls for it!

The Associated Press: US income gap widens as poor take hit in recession

The Associated Press: US income gap widens as poor take hit in recession

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