tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-208890562024-03-13T07:50:38.228-05:00liberalpastor in burnsvillethoughts on religion, politics, science, and life, from the perspective of a liberal Christianliberal pastorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11957506289805625578noreply@blogger.comBlogger1855125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20889056.post-46164721858217642542017-01-19T17:39:00.000-06:002017-01-19T17:53:21.719-06:00Transitions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Today marks the 30th day of winter. Since the solstice we have picked up 32 minutes of daylight and are now gaining more than two minutes a day. Hurrah! We are also having our first winter thaw. It's amazing how nice the upper thirties feels after a spell of bone-chilling cold.</div>
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I walked this morning at the Louisville Swamp near Jordan, MN. I parked off of Bluff Drive and walked down the Middle Road to the trails. There are two active eagle nests that can be seen along the Middle Road. There are now four active nests visible from trails in the swamp. I saw five eagles today. Two were sitting next to their nest. Minnesota eagles - and I assume others all across the northland - are now busy getting their nests ready for egg-laying. I also saw a mature eagle chasing an immature eagle through the air. And I came upon another eagle eating some kind of dead animal on the frozen swamp near Jab's Farm. I watched it for a few minutes until it saw me. It tried to grab its meal and fly but missed so it circled back around and made two passes trying to snag it on the fly. It missed both times. It then parked itself in a tree nearby and yelled at me until I walked back up the trail from the swamp. I watched from a distance as it glided back down on the ice and continued tearing away and eating its dinner.<br />
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Longer days and eagles on the nest mark the transition from winter to spring. It's a hopeful season.<br />
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We are also about to endure another transition. I am not so hopeful about this one. Today marks day 731 of President Obama's tenure as President. It is also his last. Tomorrow President Trump takes the oath of office. I miss the current President already.<br />
<br />
I don't think Obama will go down in history as a great President for the simple reason that he governed at such a hyper-partisan moment in history; the Republican opposition resisted him at every turn and limited his ability to govern effectively. And, I suspect that many of his accomplishments will shortly be undone. Hence, I think he will not be considered a great, i.e. transformational, President.<br />
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He was still a good one, the best of my adult life. Even with brutal opposition the list of his accomplishments is long and worthy, among them: a long steady economic recovery, Obamacare, opening up the military to gays (and gay marriage happening on his watch), the Iran nuclear treaty, a host of climate change and environmental initiatives and actions, no American troops in Syria, and no scandals. On top of it he and Michelle lived out their very public lives with the utmost grace and dignity. They will be missed.<br />
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Now I fear we make a Presidential transition from the beautiful season of winter to... a long endless winter with no Christmas.<br />
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<blockquote>
<a href="http://tomclarkblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/bertolt-brecht-god-of-war-der.html">The God of War by Bertolt Brecht</a> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
I saw the old god of war stand in a bog between chasm and rockface.<br />
He smelled of free beer and carbolic and showed his testicles to adolescents, for he had been rejuvenated by several professors. In a hoarse wolfish voice he declared his love for everything young. Nearby stood a pregnant woman, trembling.<br />
And without shame he talked on and presented himself as a great one for order. And he described how everywhere he put barns in order, by emptying them.<br />
And as one throws crumbs to sparrows, he fed poor people with crusts of bread which he had taken away from poor people.<br />
His voice was now loud, now soft, but always hoarse.<br />
In a loud voice he spoke of great times to come, and in a soft voice he taught women how to cook crows and seagulls. Meanwhile his back was unquiet, and he kept looking round, as though afraid of being stabbed.<br />
And every five minutes he assured his public that he would take up very little of their time.</blockquote>
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liberal pastorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11957506289805625578noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20889056.post-35764447104603115122017-01-05T13:04:00.000-06:002017-01-05T13:04:17.526-06:00Want to Change the World? Read Fiction<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This morning I started reading <a href="https://www.amazon.com/View-Cheap-Seats-Selected-Nonfiction/dp/0062262262/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1483636911&sr=8-6&keywords=Neil+Gaiman">The View From the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction</a> by Neil Gaiman. As the title suggests it's not fiction but it is written by one of the best current authors of fantasy and fiction. In the early essays, which are mostly transcriptions of speeches he has given, Gaiman talks frequently about how important it was to him as a child to have a public library nearby and to be able to read everything and anything he could get his hands on but particularly fiction and fantasy.<br />
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Fiction, he says, is a "gateway drug" to other forms of literature. It helps you fall in love with reading. It also teaches you how to imagine a better world:<br />
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You’re also finding out something as you read that will be vitally important for making your way in the world. And it’s this: THE WORLD DOESN’T HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS. THINGS CAN BE DIFFERENT. Fiction can show you a different world. It can take you somewhere you’ve never been. Once you’ve visited other worlds, like those who ate fairy fruit, you can never be entirely content with the world that you grew up in. And discontent is a good thing: people can modify and improve their worlds, leave them better, leave them different, if they’re discontented.</blockquote>
Reading these essays reminds me of my own childhood and how incredibly fortunate I was that my parents were avid readers and that we had a public library nearby. My siblings and I had library cards from the time we could read, and my mom took us to the library at least a couple of times a month where we would browse the aisles and pick up a new collection of books to bring home. It was a joy for me to go to the public library, check out books, and then sit around with my family or in my room and read.<br />
<br />
When I was in third grade at an extended family gift exchange I received a box set up JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. I remember being mildly disappointed that I received books while my cousins were opening packages with toys. I was extremely grateful, though, that I didn't receive clothes which were my least favorite Christmas gifts as a child. In any case, The Lord of the Rings was the very best gift. It became my childhood bible. I read and reread it year after year up through my teens. Countless times through those years I would open it up to a random page and read a few paragraphs or chapters and be lost again in the story. The Middle Kingdom became part of my inner world. I escaped there but I also learned, I realize now, something about how to navigate and make moral decisions in a complex world.<br />
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Gaiman has an essay on Lewis, Tolkien, and Chesterton. I never read G.K. Chesterton as a child. Gaiman read Lewis, Tolkien and Chesterton in that order. I read Tolkien first and then C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia. I was in 5th or 6th grade when I first read Chronicles of Narnia and I was probably too old. By the time I read it I was old enough to recognize it as an allegory of the Christian story, although I doubt I knew then the definition of allegory. But I experienced it much like I experienced being in church and listening to scripture read with the "moral" or the "three points". Instead of populating my imagination with visions and dreams and possibilities, I felt like Lewis was preaching to me. I didn't much enjoy the sermon.<br />
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I realize, though, that many children and adults love Chronicles of Narnia. And that is ok. This too, is one of Gaiman's arguments. There is no "wrong" literature when you are a child. Or an adult. If there is any wrong it is in trying to tell our children what they should be reading or to be sneering down our noses at adults who read literature we think is a waste of time. Isn't my reading fantasy and fiction a waste of time? No matter how well it may be written? We don't want to go there.<br />
<br />
I leave this post with two quotes from A View From the Cheap Seats. One is a reminder from C.S. Lewis:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13.92px;">As C.S. Lewis reminded us, the only people who inveigh against escape are jailers.</span></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13.92px;">The other is a story told by Gaiman:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 13.92px;">I spent much of the last four days with my ninety-five-year-old cousin Helen Fagin, who is a holocaust survivor and was professor of the holocaust at the University of Miami for some time, and a wonderful, remarkable woman, and she was telling me about when she was in the Radomsko ghetto in 1942. She had been at Kraków University until the war interrupted her studies, so she was assigned in the ghetto to teach younger kids (she would have been nineteen, maybe twenty), and in order to assert normality, these ten-or-eleven-year-olds would come in the morning and she would teach them Latin and algebra and things that she was uncertain that they would have any use for, but she would teach them. And one night she was given a copy of the Polish translation of Gone with the Wind, and she explains this is significant in that books were banned. Books were banned by the Nazis in an incredibly efficient way, which was if they found you with a book they would put a gun against your head and shoot you. Books were very, very banned, and she was given a copy of Gone with the Wind. And each night she would draw the curtains and put the blackout in place and read, with a tiny light, two or three chapters, losing valuable sleep time, so that the next morning when the kids came in she could tell them the story of what she read, and that was all they wanted. And for an hour every day they got away. They got out of the Radomsko ghetto. Most of those kids went on to the camps. She says that she tracked them all later and discovered that four—out of the dozens of kids she taught—had survived. When she told me that it made me rethink what I do and made me rethink the nature of escapist fiction, because I thought actually it gave them an escape, just there, just then. And it was worth risking death.</span></blockquote>
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liberal pastorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11957506289805625578noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20889056.post-10340637558748510942016-12-21T10:08:00.000-06:002016-12-21T10:08:38.303-06:00Our Children, Our Future<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It's the winter solstice. After a bitterly cold stretch last week winter comes in with a warm whimper. Temps above or near freezing are forecast through Christmas. Rain, possibly heavy, is forecast on Christmas Day. </div>
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I haven't had much time to think about the solstice and haven't spent much time out enjoying the snow. Son Ryan and I did manage to get in a day of grouse hunting last week in sub-zero temps in the Nemadji State Forest.<br />
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This week has been a different story. Our fourth grandchild, Mabel Rose, was born the 19th. I (we) have been helping with Mabel's sister Meadow, cooking, and trying to get ready for Christmas Eve and Day.<br />
<br />
Mabel came a week early. I had written to someone last week that Mabel had dropped and was poised for her grand entrance in the world, but she now waited, perhaps pondering whether she really wanted to be born into Trumpland. If so she didn't wait and ponder too long. It was a rush to the hospital Monday morning followed by two hours of labor and two pushes. The delivering physician reportedly said, "well that was fun."<br />
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Whatever newborns think about, I am grateful it isn't thoughts about the times we live in. That kind of thinking - or is it brooding - is left to us adults. It would be pretty easy for me to slip into a state of despondency as I watch with horror the unveiling of the cast of characters in the next anti-Administration.<br />
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But for the children... We have much work to do and no time for despair. And so I call to mind this recent <a href="http://kentnerburn.com/our-children-our-future/">post</a> by Kent Nerburn:<br />
<blockquote>
A wise woman named Robyn Sand Anderson just posted this in the blog comments as a possible theme of unification for those of us trying to make common cause for a better world in the face of what just happened. I love it. If it were within my power, I would plant it here and make it grow. But I am but one person, and none can say why some seeds grow and some do not. But this is a good seed. And it is a gesture of creativity in defiance of our collective shock and despair.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
Thank you, Robyn. And to the rest of us, imagine the marchers for Black Lives Matter and the protesters at the pipeline and those meeting in the churches and those tweeting to their friends all doing so under the banner of “Our Children, Our Future.” Imagine it as a mantra rather than the traditional prayer at a religious family’s dinner. Imagine someone saying it from the pulpit and someone writing it in a zine.</blockquote>
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Imagine it alive in our hearts as we move out from the shock of this dark moment.<br />Of such small things will our healing be made and a positive future shaped. A thousand flowers, my friends, a thousand flowers. Pick yourselves up and start to fix this mess, whether it is at your tables, in the streets, or in your tweets and blogs. Robyn’s phrase may not become a rallying cry. But maybe it will. And no matter what, she’s planting a flower, not staring blankly at the ashes. We’ve got to stand up. Our children need us. The future needs us. This is our time, because, for the first time in recent memory, we are united. Now we need to make the unification around a hope and a dream, not a common anger and dread.</blockquote>
Our Children, Our Future.<br />
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liberal pastorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11957506289805625578noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20889056.post-45166828406458853022016-11-09T12:33:00.000-06:002016-11-09T12:33:06.149-06:00The election happened - the sun came up this morning<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I was up early this morning to see the sunrise. It wasn't quite as beautiful as the sunrise last week over Lake Superior pictured here.<br />
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At the feeders outside this morning there was a red squirrel, a couple gray squirrels, Chickadees, Junkos, Cardinals, and House Sparrows (not my favorite bird). I drove down to the Louisville Swamp for an early morning walk. There were already deer hunters in the woods. I saw two Bald Eagles, lots of Canada Geese and Mallards, Tree Sparrows, Pileated, Red-breasted, and Downy Woodpeckers and other birds and squirrels. It was another beautiful November day. Yesterday I spent much of the day with our three grandchildren. There is - still - much to be thankful for.<br />
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I am deeply disappointed in the election outcome. I fear for my children and grandchildren. I fear for the country. I fear for the earth. This morning I feel very much like Thomas Friedman: "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/09/opinion/were-near-the-breaking-point.html?src=me">Homeless in America</a>." But the voters have spoken and we will have President Trump. I hope he rises to the immense challenges he will face. I hope he is able to be a leader for all the people. I hope he succeeds in improving the fortunes of all of the angry voters who voted him into office, who themselves have felt homeless in America as their jobs were shipped overseas or lost to the rapidly changing global economy. With a Republican Congress he will certainly get his chance. Time will tell.<br />
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Meanwhile we have families to nurture, friends to give us hope and keep us laughing, communities to support, and a fragile earth to take care of. There is much important and meaningful work to do.<br />
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I leave you with one of my favorite quotes by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/37218.Edward_Abbey">Edward Abbey</a>. I am not quite as confident as he is about the outcome but I love the sentiment:<br />
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One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast....a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.</blockquote>
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liberal pastorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11957506289805625578noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20889056.post-67309538814569911502016-11-08T15:00:00.000-06:002016-11-08T15:00:30.040-06:00Election Day<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Mary Ann and I voted around lunchtime today. No lines, but a steady flow of people. Two women were wearing pants-suits. I wonder who they were voting for? It's been the nastiest election season I have ever seen and I can only hope that the nasty woman wins and wins big.<br />
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There has been little if any conversation about issues that matter during the campaign. Trumps daily insults and Hillary's emails have kept the media titillated and uninterested in moving the conversation on to more important topics. It is particularly disappointing that climate change went unmentioned. It's the most important issue facing us and it didn't, as far as I remember, come up in the debates nor get any air time by the candidates or the press.<br />
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Meanwhile our endless summer continues. Sixty degrees this afternoon, still no freeze, and the longest growing season on record continues.<br />
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Yesterday I walked at Murphy-Hanrehan Park. I parked in the main parking lot and walked past Hanrehan Lake where there was a large flock of Ring-necked ducks on the water. I read that they are late migrants.<br />
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Interestingly, there was a Bald Eagle swooping low over them. I watched it make six passes before it saw me and took off. I don't know what it was up to,<br />
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What I do know is that we must love the ducks, the eagles, the earth that nurtures us all, and one another, or die.<br />
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<b>September 1, 1939</b></div>
W. H. Auden, 1907 - 1973<br />
<br />
I sit in one of the dives<br />
On Fifty-second Street<br />
Uncertain and afraid<br />
As the clever hopes expire<br />
Of a low dishonest decade:<br />
Waves of anger and fear<br />
Circulate over the bright<br />
And darkened lands of the earth,<br />
Obsessing our private lives;<br />
The unmentionable odour of death<br />
Offends the September night.<br />
<br />
Accurate scholarship can<br />
Unearth the whole offence<br />
From Luther until now<br />
That has driven a culture mad,<br />
Find what occurred at Linz,<br />
What huge imago made<br />
A psychopathic god:<br />
I and the public know<br />
What all schoolchildren learn,<br />
Those to whom evil is done<br />
Do evil in return.<br />
<br />
Exiled Thucydides knew<br />
All that a speech can say<br />
About Democracy,<br />
And what dictators do,<br />
The elderly rubbish they talk<br />
To an apathetic grave;<br />
Analysed all in his book,<br />
The enlightenment driven away,<br />
The habit-forming pain,<br />
Mismanagement and grief:<br />
We must suffer them all again.<br />
<br />
Into this neutral air<br />
Where blind skyscrapers use<br />
Their full height to proclaim<br />
The strength of Collective Man,<br />
Each language pours its vain<br />
Competitive excuse:<br />
But who can live for long<br />
In an euphoric dream;<br />
Out of the mirror they stare,<br />
Imperialism’s face<br />
And the international wrong.<br />
<br />
Faces along the bar<br />
Cling to their average day:<br />
The lights must never go out,<br />
The music must always play,<br />
All the conventions conspire<br />
To make this fort assume<br />
The furniture of home;<br />
Lest we should see where we are,<br />
Lost in a haunted wood,<br />
Children afraid of the night<br />
Who have never been happy or good.<br />
<br />
The windiest militant trash<br />
Important Persons shout<br />
Is not so crude as our wish:<br />
What mad Nijinsky wrote<br />
About Diaghilev<br />
Is true of the normal heart;<br />
For the error bred in the bone<br />
Of each woman and each man<br />
Craves what it cannot have,<br />
Not universal love<br />
But to be loved alone.<br />
<br />
From the conservative dark<br />
Into the ethical life<br />
The dense commuters come,<br />
Repeating their morning vow;<br />
“I will be true to the wife,<br />
I’ll concentrate more on my work,"<br />
And helpless governors wake<br />
To resume their compulsory game:<br />
Who can release them now,<br />
Who can reach the deaf,<br />
Who can speak for the dumb?<br />
<br />
All I have is a voice<br />
To undo the folded lie,<br />
The romantic lie in the brain<br />
Of the sensual man-in-the-street<br />
And the lie of Authority<br />
Whose buildings grope the sky:<br />
There is no such thing as the State<br />
And no one exists alone;<br />
Hunger allows no choice<br />
To the citizen or the police;<br />
We must love one another or die.<br />
<br />
Defenceless under the night<br />
Our world in stupor lies;<br />
Yet, dotted everywhere,<br />
Ironic points of light<br />
Flash out wherever the Just<br />
Exchange their messages:<br />
May I, composed like them<br />
Of Eros and of dust,<br />
Beleaguered by the same<br />
Negation and despair,<br />
Show an affirming flame.</div>
liberal pastorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11957506289805625578noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20889056.post-40568198848113276792016-10-27T10:22:00.000-05:002016-10-27T14:29:26.502-05:00Bats<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It can't be accidental that the week before Halloween is also International <a href="http://www.batweek.org/">Bat Week</a>. Bats, along with spiders and cats, are among the "scary" creatures that show up in lawn displays and costumes.<br />
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When I was a child I learned that if you were out in the evening when the bats were flying you might be the victim of a bat laying its <a href="http://www.cracked.com/article_19935_8-ridiculous-animal-myths-you-probably-believe.html">eggs in your hair</a>. Bats, of course, are mammals and don't lay eggs. And they have an incredible locating system that keeps them from flying into things - like humans - that might harm them. I am not sure when I unlearned that silly myth but I have long since come to enjoy their "story" and appreciate their part in a healthy environment.<br />
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For the last couple of years our church has been renting the group camp site at Forestville State Park for our summer camping outing. The Mystery Cave is there and it is home to a sizable bat population. But many also spend summer days resting in the rafters of the large group camp pavilion that we use while camping. You can hear them chattering all day long and often see some between the beams. But what is really fascinating is to watch as evening rolls around and they crawl out, line up, walk down a rafter, and take flight one after another as if they are queued up for takeoff on a runway.<br />
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<a href="http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mammals/bats.html">Minnesota</a> is home to seven species of bats. The little brown bat is the most common.<br />
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It is one of four species that spend their winters hibernating in Minnesota caves. Three other species migrate south for the winter. It is the cave dwellers that are particularly susceptible to the <a href="https://www.minnpost.com/earth-journal/2014/01/11-facts-about-minnesota-bats-and-mystery-plague-threatens-them">White Nose Syndrome</a> that has decimated some bat populations in other parts of the country. The fungus has been found at Mystery Cave and elsewhere in Minnesota but so far we haven't seen a decline in bat numbers. As the linked article suggests, though, the trend lines are "awful."<br />
<br />
An enormous amount of money and research is being poured into understanding this disease as bats play a crucial role in our agricultural economy. We know they eat mosquitoes but they also eat vast quantities of insect pests that potentially save farmers billions of dollars in pesticide costs. Now, though, there is a possibility that farming practices may be affecting bat populations in much the way that they are suspected of affecting honey bee populations.<br />
<br />
The evidence isn't it yet on the relationship between big ag and bat decline. But I won't be surprised if there is a link. We already know our agricultural practices are bad for the soil, the water, the bees, wildlife, and quite frankly us.<br />
<br />
In any case, bats are amazing creatures. Here are a few more bat <a href="http://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/2016/10/25/its-bat-week/">facts</a>:<br />
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<li style="line-height: 1.8em; list-style-image: url("img/arrows.gif"); margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px;">There are more than 1,300 species of bats on earth, 40 in the U.S.</li>
<li style="line-height: 1.8em; list-style-image: url("img/arrows.gif"); margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px;">Bat wings are webs of skin between their fingers (forelimbs). Bats have more bones in their wings than birds do.</li>
<li style="line-height: 1.8em; list-style-image: url("img/arrows.gif"); margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px;">Bats have “thumbs” on the leading end of their wings that help them grasp and climb. The tropical Spix’s Disk-winged Bat roosts on leaves so he has suction cups where his thumbs would be. Click<a href="http://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/2013/10/30/hanging-on-by-his-thumbs/" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(204, 153, 102); color: #557799; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">here</a> to see.</li>
<li style="line-height: 1.8em; list-style-image: url("img/arrows.gif"); margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px;">According to <a href="http://www.batcon.org/why-bats/bats-are/bats-are-cool" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(204, 153, 102); color: #557799; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">batcon.org,</a> some male bats sing like songbirds to defend territory and attract mates.</li>
<li style="line-height: 1.8em; list-style-image: url("img/arrows.gif"); margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px;">Most bats reproduce very slowly, only one pup per year.</li>
</ul>
And a bat poem:
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<br />
<b><a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/44574">Bats</a></b><br />
BY D. H. LAWRENCE<br />
At evening, sitting on this terrace,<br />
When the sun from the west, beyond Pisa, beyond the mountains of Carrara<br />
Departs, and the world is taken by surprise ...<br />
<br />
When the tired flower of Florence is in gloom beneath the glowing<br />
Brown hills surrounding ...<br />
<br />
When under the arches of the Ponte Vecchio<br />
A green light enters against stream, flush from the west,<br />
Against the current of obscure Arno ...<br />
<br />
Look up, and you see things flying<br />
Between the day and the night;<br />
Swallows with spools of dark thread sewing the shadows together.<br />
<br />
A circle swoop, and a quick parabola under the bridge arches<br />
Where light pushes through;<br />
A sudden turning upon itself of a thing in the air.<br />
A dip to the water.<br />
<br />
And you think:<br />
"The swallows are flying so late!"<br />
<br />
Swallows?<br />
<br />
Dark air-life looping<br />
Yet missing the pure loop ...<br />
A twitch, a twitter, an elastic shudder in flight<br />
And serrated wings against the sky,<br />
Like a glove, a black glove thrown up at the light,<br />
And falling back.<br />
<br />
Never swallows!<br />
Bats!<br />
The swallows are gone.<br />
<br />
At a wavering instant the swallows gave way to bats<br />
By the Ponte Vecchio ...<br />
Changing guard.<br />
<br />
Bats, and an uneasy creeping in one's scalp<br />
As the bats swoop overhead!<br />
Flying madly.<br />
<br />
Pipistrello!<br />
Black piper on an infinitesimal pipe.<br />
Little lumps that fly in air and have voices indefinite, wildly vindictive;<br />
<br />
Wings like bits of umbrella.<br />
<br />
Bats!<br />
<br />
Creatures that hang themselves up like an old rag, to sleep;<br />
And disgustingly upside down.<br />
<br />
Hanging upside down like rows of disgusting old rags<br />
And grinning in their sleep.<br />
Bats!<br />
<br />
In China the bat is symbol for happiness.<br />
<br />
Not for me!</div>
liberal pastorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11957506289805625578noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20889056.post-12375680717769398492016-10-21T15:47:00.002-05:002016-10-27T14:30:59.270-05:00Nature gives to us. Can we give something back?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Robin Wall Kimmerer is Professor of Environmental and Forest Biology at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. She is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and writes passionately and well about the science and beauty of the natural world, and about the human-made threats to its - to our - health and well being. In her most recent book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Braiding-Sweetgrass-Indigenous-Scientific-Knowledge/dp/1571313567/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1477058605&sr=8-1&keywords=braiding+sweetgrass+by+robin+wall+kimmerer">Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants</a> (2013), she talks about human interactions with nature as seen through the lens of the students she teaches:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
One otherwise unremarkable morning I gave the students in my General Ecology class a survey. Among other things, they were asked to rate their understanding of the negative interactions between humans and the environment. Nearly every one of the two hundred students said confidently that humans and nature are a bad mix. These were third-year students who had selected a career in environmental protection, so the response was, in a way, not very surprising. They were well schooled in the mechanics of climate change, toxins in the land and water, and the crisis of habitat loss. Later in the survey, they were asked to rate their knowledge of positive interactions between people and land. The median response was “none.” I was stunned. How is it possible that in twenty years of education they cannot think of any beneficial relationships between people and the environment? Perhaps the negative examples they see every day— brownfields, factory farms, suburban sprawl—truncated their ability to see some good between humans and the earth. As the land becomes impoverished, so too does the scope of their vision. When we talked about this after class, I realized that they could not even imagine what beneficial relations between their species and others might look like. How can we begin to move toward ecological and cultural sustainability if we cannot even imagine what the path feels like?</blockquote>
I thought about this quote last evening as I read the latest issue of Trout Unlimited magazine. The current issue is all about the effects of climate change on the watersheds that support cold-water species like trout and salmon. All across the country the weather is playing havoc with the health of the streams and rivers that support fish and their food sources. Rivers and the life they support have always had to adapt to drought, fire, hurricanes, and monsoon-like rain events, but climate change is accelerating the rate at which these events occur, making it difficult for aquatic life to recover and adapt.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9BPkkuhC4I0/WAongqFIbbI/AAAAAAAAGWc/ID7T9EahH5A4NQTLZDtl5jqNfFIthjz0QCLcB/s1600/Whitewater_State_Park.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9BPkkuhC4I0/WAongqFIbbI/AAAAAAAAGWc/ID7T9EahH5A4NQTLZDtl5jqNfFIthjz0QCLcB/s320/Whitewater_State_Park.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Whitewater River in Whitewater State Park</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I have seen this in Minnesota on the streams that I love to fish. The Whitewater River and its tributaries have seen a series of major flooding events over the last decade. The MN DNR <a href="http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/climate/summaries_and_publications/mega_rain_events.html">says</a> that "mega-rains" are hitting MN with an increasing frequency all across the state: "These trends are consistent with the expectation that Minnesota and the Upper Midwest will receive more precipitation, and more precipitation from large events, in response to increasing global temperatures and increased available moisture for passing storm systems."<br />
<br />
If we don't know know that humans are effecting the climate in negative ways... well, how could we not know? And it is only going to get worse. But the question that interests me at the moment is do we know what a <i>beneficial</i> relationship between us and other species looks like? That's where an organization like Trout Unlimited comes in. All across the country, and all across the state of Minnesota they organize volunteers to improve that habitat that supports trout and salmon. I have participated in volunteer projects on the Vermillion River in Farmington. A mostly dead stream has slowly been transformed into a healthy trout stream. Why does this matter? Because it means that farming practices along the river have to be addressed, wastewater treatment systems have to be improved, and citizens and politicians need to be educated and brought on board to support taking care of the environment. If we are going to do something about climate change this is the way it is going to happen. People have to be connected with the land and the water so they learn to love it and care for it. This is what TU does. This is what a beneficial relationship with the earth looks like.<br />
<br />
So put down that bag of potato chips and your cell phone and get out there...<br />
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
For Calling The Spirit Back From Wandering The Earth In Its Human Feet, by Joy Harjo<br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Conflict-Resolution-Holy-Beings-Poems/dp/039324850X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1477081823&sr=8-1&keywords=joy+harjo+conflict+resolution+for+holy+beings">Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings, Poems, Joy Harjo</a></h4>
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<br /></div>
Put down that bag of potato chips, that white bread, that bottle of pop.<br />
<br />
Turn off that cellphone, computer, and remote control.<br />
<br />
Open the door, then close it behind you.<br />
<br />
Take a breath offered by friendly winds. They travel the Earth gathering essences of plants to clean.<br />
<br />
Give it back with gratitude.<br />
<br />
If you sing it will give your spirit lift to fly to the stars’ ears and back.<br />
<br />
Acknowledge this Earth who has cared for you since you were a dream planting itself precisely within your parents’ desire.<br />
<br />
Let your moccasin feet take you to the encampment of the guardians who have known you before time, who will be there after time. They sit before the fire that has been there without time.<br />
<br />
Let the Earth stabilize your postcolonial insecure jitters.<br />
<br />
Be respectful of the small insects, birds, and animal people who accompany you.<br />
Ask their forgiveness for the harm we humans have brought down upon them.<br />
<br />
Don’t worry.<br />
The heart knows the way though there may be high-rises, interstates, checkpoints, armed soldiers, massacres, wars, and those who will despise you because they despise themselves.<br />
<br />
The journey might take you a few hours, a day, a year, a few years, a hundred, a thousand, or even more.<br />
<br />
Watch your mind. Without training it might run away and leave your heart for the immense human feast set by the thieves of time.<br />
<br />
Do not hold regrets.<br />
<br />
When you find your way to the circle, to the fire kept burning by the keepers of your soul, you will be welcomed.<br />
<br />
You must clean yourself with cedar, sage, or other healing plant.<br />
<br />
Cut the ties you have to failure and shame.<br />
<br />
Let go the pain you are holding in your mind, your shoulders, your heart, all the way to your feet. Let go the pain of your ancestors to make way for those who are heading in our direction.<br />
<br />
Ask for forgiveness.<br />
<br />
Call upon the help of those who love you. These helpers take many forms: animal, element, bird, angel, saint, stone, or ancestor.<br />
<br />
Call your spirit back. It may be caught in corners and creases of shame, judgement, and human abuse.<br />
<br />
You must call in a way that your spirit will want to return. Speak to it as you would to a beloved child.<br />
<br />
Welcome your spirit back from its wandering. It may return in pieces, in tatters. Gather them together. They will be happy to be found after being lost for so long.<br />
<br />
Your spirit will need to sleep awhile after it is bathed and given clean clothes.<br />
<br />
Now you can have a party. Invite everyone you know who loves and supports you. Keep room for those who have no place else to go.<br />
<br />
Make a giveaway, and remember, keep the speeches short.<br />
<br />
Then, you must do this: help the next person find their way through the dark.</div>
liberal pastorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11957506289805625578noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20889056.post-55807543927641259792016-10-20T16:33:00.001-05:002016-10-27T14:31:36.605-05:00A beautiful fall that feels a lot like summer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I walked at Murphy-Hanrehan Park today. I saw a pair of warblers that I couldn't identify, Lincoln's, Song, and White-throated Sparrows, a pair of Golden-crowned Kinglets, three Hermit Thrushes, Juncos and Chickadees, and several hawks flying at a distance. We are mostly past peek fall colors here, but there is still some to be seen.</div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_Rtq0Pl787k/WAkvbADTIhI/AAAAAAAAGV4/o5YfaODLqawxqBcv411KZSODt1J2mwpcwCKgB/s1600/20161020_114507.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_Rtq0Pl787k/WAkvbADTIhI/AAAAAAAAGV4/o5YfaODLqawxqBcv411KZSODt1J2mwpcwCKgB/s320/20161020_114507.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Even the prairie grasses look great.</div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3wLYch6eu-I/WAkvbD9o9uI/AAAAAAAAGV4/Lm66Axn47_Ih2neVyLiZAdI83eZ69TQSgCKgB/s1600/20161020_120736.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3wLYch6eu-I/WAkvbD9o9uI/AAAAAAAAGV4/Lm66Axn47_Ih2neVyLiZAdI83eZ69TQSgCKgB/s320/20161020_120736.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I came home and mowed grass and leaves. Then I walked out back. It;s October 20 and we still have roses blooming.</div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u_kAMT6rxdQ/WAkvbC_hVUI/AAAAAAAAGV4/-fAzrh-ZheomDZNGD-1ENTfXF_QMFeCzgCKgB/s1600/20161020_150235.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u_kAMT6rxdQ/WAkvbC_hVUI/AAAAAAAAGV4/-fAzrh-ZheomDZNGD-1ENTfXF_QMFeCzgCKgB/s320/20161020_150235.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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The Cimicifuga racemosa is finally blooming. Often we get a freeze before it comes into bloom, but not this year.</div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--nojmKl7JB0/WAkvbGGRcvI/AAAAAAAAGV4/65U8ta79qc4RPMFxhcEDLNkE8CSP8T38ACKgB/s1600/20161020_150858.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--nojmKl7JB0/WAkvbGGRcvI/AAAAAAAAGV4/65U8ta79qc4RPMFxhcEDLNkE8CSP8T38ACKgB/s320/20161020_150858.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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We also have hydrangea coming into bloom. I'm sure this endless summer has nothing to do with climate change!</div>
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Here's some wisdom from a late bloomer:</div>
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“I was a late bloomer. But anyone who blooms at all, ever, is very lucky. ” ― <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/50090.Sharon_Olds">Sharon Olds</a></div>
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liberal pastorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11957506289805625578noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20889056.post-63797786284838984712011-08-15T08:06:00.004-05:002011-08-15T09:05:01.076-05:00Sunday Night MassYesterday evening I took my mother-in-law Mary, mother of my wife Mary Ann, to Mary Mother Catholic Church in Burnsville. There is something about Mary in Catholicism.<div>
<br /></div><div>This was my second visit there with my mother-in-law this summer. She has been out for both weddings and has been a great help so I am happy to take her to mass. Mary Mother Catholic Church is the more theologically progressive of the two Catholic parishes in Burnsville. It is reflected in their active social justice ministry and their (carefully worded) prayers of inclusion. The music is very good. Yesterday the worship leadership - altar girl, worship leader, scripture reader - were all female. The priest, of course, was not. In the two times I have heard him deliver a homily it is obvious that he puts a lot of time into the message, which is not always the case in Catholic, or Protestant, services.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>The gospel reading yesterday was from Matthew 15:</div><div><blockquote>Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon.Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.’ But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.’ He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ But she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’ He answered, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’ Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.</blockquote></div>This is one of those "hard" sayings of Jesus. He appears to callously dismiss the gentile women's plea for help. It is only her persistence and smart comeback that gains her a genuine hearing. This is not a very welcoming Jesus.<div>
<br /></div><div>I thought it was interesting how the priest handled this passage. It was a very Catholic message on the rewards of persistence in faith. Jesus' initial brush-off was just a test, giving the Canaanite woman an opportunity to work for her reward. He likened it to his 91 year old mother doing a jigsaw puzzle. He said she loves to work on big, difficult puzzles, plugging away at it for days and even weeks, looking for the satisfaction of the completed puzzle at the end. So it is with faith. If we keep plugging away at good works we can be sure we will get our reward at the end.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>He talked about prayer in the same way. We need to keep praying with the confidence that God will reward our efforts with an answer. Although, he said two different times, we should not expect miracles but healing. Healing, he said, is what we should pray for. He didn't define those terms but I thought it was interesting that he made the distinction and assume that at other times he has spelled out what would be a fairly progressive theological distinction.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>Still, it was a very Catholic message on faith and works. Traditional Protestantism would trumpet God's grace over works, but then remind us that although God's grace is sure we can never be sure that we have it. But our works are a visible sign that we <i>probably</i> do. In the hands of an unscrupulous Protestant minister it is a back-handed way to keep the flock coming back for more.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>There is something to be said for a more straight-forward and fair earn your way into heaven plan of action. If you can get past the creed, the all-male priesthood, the theology of the mass itself, etc. I can't, but the couple hundred who were present for both services I attended obviously can. I am happy for them and for my mother-in-law that they find it meaningful.</div>liberal pastorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11957506289805625578noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20889056.post-65596670120949642812011-03-26T07:09:00.004-05:002011-03-26T07:24:52.162-05:00Bob Herbert Signs Off Saying We Have Lost Our WayBob Herbert writes his last <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/opinion/26herbert.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1301141087-FchW5HWGL%20lolTn3sNVffg&pagewanted=print">column</a> for the NYTimes today and gives voice to my thoughts about our plunge into another war while millions in the US are unemployed:<br /><blockquote>So here we are pouring shiploads of cash into yet another war, this time in Libya, while simultaneously demolishing school budgets, closing libraries, laying off teachers and police officers, and generally letting the bottom fall out of the quality of life here at home.<br /><br />Welcome to America in the second decade of the 21st century. An army of long-term unemployed workers is spread across the land, the human fallout from the Great Recession and long years of misguided economic policies. Optimism is in short supply. The few jobs now being created too often pay a pittance, not nearly enough to pry open the doors to a middle-class standard of living.<br /><br />Arthur Miller, echoing the poet Archibald MacLeish, liked to say that the essence of America was its promises. That was a long time ago. Limitless greed, unrestrained corporate power and a ferocious addiction to foreign oil have led us to an era of perpetual war and economic decline. Young people today are staring at a future in which they will be less well off than their elders, a reversal of fortune that should send a shudder through everyone.<br /><br />The U.S. has not just misplaced its priorities. When the most powerful country ever to inhabit the earth finds it so easy to plunge into the horror of warfare but almost impossible to find adequate work for its people or to properly educate its young, it has lost its way entirely. </blockquote>There is no political will - even from Democrats - to spend money at home to bring down the unemployment rate and tackle the countless number of problems we have here. "We are broke" is the constant refrain. And yet there is barely a murmur of dissent as we commit ourselves to spending billions on another war of choice. It is hard not to agree with Bob Herbert: we have lost our way.liberal pastorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11957506289805625578noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20889056.post-87640831482613262512011-03-25T13:31:00.003-05:002011-03-25T13:43:21.554-05:00It's Time to Stop Playing the Killing GameDonald McCartin is a retired Superior Court Judge in California. He was named to bench by Governor Jerry Brown in 1978. During his tenure on the bench he became, by his own admission, known as a "hanging judge" for the number of people he sentenced to death row. As he watches another go-around with Jerry Brown as governor, he thinks the time has come, for moral and economic reasons, for the Governor to end the death penalty in <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-mccartin-death-penalty-20110325,0,2340912.story">California</a>:<br /><blockquote>I watch today as Gov. Brown wrestles with the massive debt that is suffocating our state and hear him say he doesn't want to "play games." But I cringe when I learn that not playing games amounts to cuts to kindergarten, cuts to universities, cuts to people with special needs — and I hear no mention of the simple cut that would save hundreds of millions of dollars, countless man-hours, unimaginable court time and years of emotional torture for victim's family members waiting for that magical sense of "closure" they've been falsely promised with death sentences that will never be carried out.<br /><br />There is actually, I've come to realize, no such thing as "closure" when a loved one is taken. What family members must find is reconciliation with the reality of their loss, and that can begin the minute the perpetrator is sent to a prison he will never leave. But to ask them to endure the years of being dragged through the courts in pursuit of the ultimate punishment is a cruel lie.<br /><br />It's time to stop playing the killing game. Let's use the hundreds of millions of dollars we'll save to protect some of those essential services now threatened with death. Let's stop asking people like me to lie to those victim's family members.</blockquote>liberal pastorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11957506289805625578noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20889056.post-27282109304977221432011-03-25T12:54:00.004-05:002011-03-25T13:10:05.967-05:00The Followers of Gandhi and JesusGeoffrey Ward begins his <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/27/books/review/book-review-great-soul-mahatma-gandhi-and-his-struggle-with-india-by-joseph-lelyveld.html?_r=1&nl=books&emc=booksupdateema1&pagewanted=print">review</a> of a new book on Gandhi, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Great-Soul-Mahatma-Gandhi-Struggle/dp/0307269582/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1301076010&sr=8-1">Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India</a> By Joseph Lelyveld, with this telling observation:<br /><p> </p><blockquote><p>Some years ago, the British writer Patrick French visited the Sabarmati ashram on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in the Indian state of Gujarat, the site from which Mahatma Gandhi led his salt march to the sea in 1930. French was so appalled by the noisome state of the latrines that he asked the ashram secretary whose job it was to clean them. </p> <p> A sweeper woman stopped by for an hour a day, the functionary explained, but afterward things inevitably became filthy again. </p> <p> But wasn’t it a central tenet of the Mahatma’s teachings that his followers clean up after themselves? </p> <p> “We all clean the toilets together, on Gandhiji’s birthday,” the secretary answered, “as a symbol to show that we understand his message.”</p></blockquote><p>Reminds me a lot of the followers of Jesus.<br /></p>liberal pastorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11957506289805625578noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20889056.post-69051909387070271172011-03-25T12:27:00.002-05:002011-03-25T12:49:16.144-05:00The Anabaptist Catholic WitnessOver the National Catholic Reporter Michael Sean Winters was <a href="http://ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/more-catholic-attitudes-gay-marriage">musing</a> about recent polling data that shows Catholics - even those who attend Mass at least weekly and who tend to be more conservative on social issues - warming to the idea of recognition for civil marriage for gays. What should be the response of the Church:<br /><blockquote>The Catholic Church should not bury its head in the sand as Donohue (Bill Donohue of the Catholic League for Civil Rights) seems to want it to do. Our approach to this issue, like our approach to many issues in this increasingly secular culture, must be to foster what Pope Benedict has called “creative minorities” in which we live what we believe and hope the beauty our lives evidence will attract others. Allowing ourselves to be lumped with anti-gay bigots is not the answer. We must ask ourselves: Why do others not see the beauty of a lifelong marital commitment? Why do others not see Christ as a part of their marriage? And, why should we be in the business of trying to prevent gays and lesbians from achieving some level of legal stability and protection for their unions? These are not easy questions, even though the loudest voices on both sides of the issue treat them, if they treat them at all, as easily answered.</blockquote>Benedict's "creative minorities" sounds very anabaptist. It is a recognition that our most telling witness is the witness of our lives. If our lives radiate the beauty of love, sacrifice and commitment then we may find that we will have something that is attractive to offer to the world. The power we have in this way of living is not the power of being able to legislate our way but the power of authenticity which is the only power that ultimately changes hearts and minds. This is, in my opinion, the very best of the anabaptist witness. So it is interesting to hear it being espoused by the Pope.liberal pastorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11957506289805625578noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20889056.post-7428998967680672902011-03-25T11:31:00.004-05:002011-03-25T11:38:55.713-05:00Change We Can't Believe InUnfortunately I find myself pretty much in agreement with this <a href="http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/03/21/what_intervention_in_libya_tells_us_about_the_neocon_liberal_alliance">comparison</a> by Stephen Walt -- now of Harvard and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace -- of the difference between the liberal interventionists leading us into war with Libya and the neocons who led us into war in Iraq:<br /><blockquote>The only important intellectual difference between neoconservatives and liberal interventionists is that the former have disdain for international institutions (which they see as constraints on U.S. power), and the latter see them as a useful way to legitimate American dominance. Both groups extol the virtues of democracy, both groups believe that U.S. power -- and especially its military power -- can be a highly effective tool of statecraft. Both groups are deeply alarmed at the prospect that WMD might be in the hands of anybody but the United States and its closest allies, and both groups think it is America's right and responsibility to fix lots of problems all over the world. Both groups consistently over-estimate how easy it will be to do this, however, which is why each has a propensity to get us involved in conflicts where our vital interests are not engaged and that end up costing a lot more than they initially expect.<br /><br />So if you're baffled by how Mr. "Change You Can Believe In" morphed into Mr. "More of the Same," you shouldn't really be surprised. George Bush left in disgrace and Barack Obama took his place, but he brought with him a group of foreign policy advisors whose basic world views were not that different from the people they were replacing. I'm not saying their attitudes were <i>identical</i>, but the similarities are probably more important than the areas of disagreement. Most of the U.S. foreign policy establishment has become addicted to empire, it seems, and it doesn't really matter which party happens to be occupying Pennsylvania Avenue.<br /><br />So where does this leave us? For starters, Barack Obama now owns not one but two wars. He inherited a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, and he chose to escalate instead of withdrawing. Instead of being George Bush's mismanaged blunder, Afghanistan became "Obama's War." And now he's taken on a second, potentially open-ended military commitment, after no public debate, scant consultation with Congress, without a clear articulation of national interest, and in the face of great public skepticism. Talk about going with a gut instinct.<br /></blockquote>liberal pastorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11957506289805625578noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20889056.post-76714921581850631152011-03-24T16:38:00.004-05:002011-03-24T17:06:17.140-05:00Should I Buy a New Car or Go on an Expensive VacationWell, the answer for me is neither. Both my kids are getting married this summer. But if you have a choice and want to know which will ultimately make you happier, Professor Daniel Gilbert, author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Stumbling-Happiness-Daniel-Gilbert/dp/1400077427/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1301002960&sr=1-1">Stumbling On Happiness</a> answers the question in an <span style="font-style: italic;">Atlantic</span> <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/03/what-is-the-secret-to-happiness-and-money/72874/">article</a> and says you should pick the vacation:<br /><blockquote>We favor objects because we think that experiences can be fun but leave us with nothing to show for them. But that turns out to be a good thing. Experiences have the nice property of going away. Cars need repairs, they rust in our driveway, and they ultimately disappoint us enough that we sell them and get new ones. Experiences are like good relatives that stay for a while and then leave. Objects are like relatives who move in and stay past their welcome.<br /><br />Another reason why experiences beat objects is that experiences are usually social. If you go to Europe you will almost surely go with someone, whereas if you buy the car, you will probably drive it by yourself. We are social animals, and the best predictor of happiness is the goodness and extent of our social relationships. Experiences are more likely to be shared than objects are.</blockquote>A couple other Q&A's from the article:<br /><b></b><blockquote><b>You write, "unfettered access to peak experiences may actually be counterproductive." Explain that.</b><br /><br />Imagine making love to the person of your dreams. That will be a good day. But the day after will not. The good thing about peak experiences is that they make us happy while we are having them, but the bad thing is that they then serve as a standard of comparison for all the experiences that follow. When researchers looked at lottery winners, they weren't happier than a control group, but they did take less pleasure in everyday events. The big happiness rush you get when you receive the big check is gone pretty soon, and then when good things happen you find yourself saying, "That was nice but it wasn't like the day I won the lottery."<br /><br /> <div class="articleContent"><style>@font-face { font-family: "Calibri"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 10pt; line-height: 115%; font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoPlainText, li.MsoPlainText, div.MsoPlainText { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }span.PlainTextChar { font-family: Calibri; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }</style>That doesn't mean you should refuse peak experiences. It just means you should ask yourself, "If I have this peak experience, will it make the rest of my life dull and unsatisfying?"<br /><br /><b>What's the most controversial suggestion in the paper?<br /><br /></b>If one thing surprises most folks, it might be the suggestion to buy many small things rather than fewer big things. If you asked people if they'd prefer an ice cream cone every Monday for the next few weeks or a great meal at a French restaurant, most would probably take the great meal gift certificate. But it turns out that the frequency of positive events is a better predictor of happiness than intensity of those positive events. </div></blockquote>I prefer beer to ice cream but it makes sense to me. And I rarely come away from an expensive restaurant satisfied that the meal or experience was worth the price.liberal pastorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11957506289805625578noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20889056.post-58545206090938808802011-03-24T16:12:00.003-05:002011-03-24T16:33:36.551-05:00How Great Entrepreneurs ThinkSaras Sarasvathy, a professor at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, has been studying entrepreneurs and how they think. Her <a href="http://www.inc.com/magazine/20110201/how-great-entrepreneurs-think.html">conclusion</a>:<br /><blockquote>Sarasvathy concluded that master entrepreneurs rely on what she calls <a href="http://effectuation.org/" target="_blank">effectual reasoning</a>. Brilliant improvisers, the entrepreneurs don't start out with concrete goals. Instead, they constantly assess how to use their personal strengths and whatever resources they have at hand to develop goals on the fly, while creatively reacting to contingencies. By contrast, corporate executives—those in the study group were also enormously successful in their chosen field—use causal reasoning. They set a goal and diligently seek the best ways to achieve it...<br /></blockquote>Would you describe Jesus as a master entrepreneur or a corporate executive? Was he developing goals on the fly or did he have it all planned out from the beginning? At what point did he see a cross in his future? Was this always the short-term goal on the way to resurrection and a church? Or did he start out with other goals - say forming a renewal movement - and eventually come to see his own martyrdom as necessary in order to jump-start something bigger? Was the cross a calculated risk or a painful but necessary step on the way to a global organization?<br /><br />I'd say he was closer to entrepreneur.liberal pastorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11957506289805625578noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20889056.post-54654177261326873012011-03-23T09:22:00.004-05:002011-03-23T09:25:06.366-05:00It's Snowing AgainThese goldfinches are as happy about it as I am.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-STtnGgnH2bM/TYoCbsDQRtI/AAAAAAAAAa0/-3CXgxoET2M/s1600/042.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-STtnGgnH2bM/TYoCbsDQRtI/AAAAAAAAAa0/-3CXgxoET2M/s400/042.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5587280962411054802" /></a>liberal pastorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11957506289805625578noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20889056.post-22189051593812678422011-03-21T08:17:00.004-05:002011-03-21T08:32:40.661-05:00Saving the Jefferson BibleIn my message yesterday I was talking about how I have come to understand the stories of Jesus the healer and exorcist. I mentioned that there was a time when I practiced the Thomas Jefferson method of reading the Bible. I cut out - figuratively - all the stories I didn't like. I just ignored them.<br /><br />Jefferson, of course, literally cut them out. Or more precisely he cut out the passages of the Bible he did like and created his own private Bible. This morning I saw a <span style="font-style: italic;">Washington Post</span> article <a href="http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/faith/118266359.html">reprinted</a> in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Star Tribune</span> about Smithsonian Institution attempts to save the Bible, which is apparently falling apart:<br /><p></p><blockquote><p>For more than 116 years, the Jefferson Bible, as it is known, has been one of the iconic possessions of the Smithsonian Institution. Now a group of conservators and curators has removed the 86 pages from the original binding and is examining every inch to stabilize its condition, study its words and craftsmanship, and guarantee that future generations can learn more about the artifact and the man.</p> <p>The pages, with verses glued on each side, are brittle and stiff -- 90 percent show some damage. Jefferson used a mix of animal glue and starch as an adhesive. The handsewn binding is tight, making the spine rigid.</p> <p>On one table in the basement workshop, Jefferson's title page for "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth" is elaborately written in his clear hand.</p> <p>"There are 12 different types of paper and seven different types of ink," said Janice Stagnitto Ellis, the museum's paper conservator. "We took tiny samples of ink from the ruled line. The paper fibers are weak."</p> <p>Jefferson was meticulous, she said, leaving precise gaps in each book as he removed the verses that supported his religious and moral beliefs. He used two English texts, as well as two French and two Greek and Latin, arranging his selections in chronological order over four columns.</p> <p>He was also an editor. "Apparently he didn't like the construction here of 'for as in a day,' so he edited out the 'as,'" explained Ellis, pointing with a silver micro-spatula to the little square where he had eliminated the word.</p> <p>"This is a private document he created for himself," said Harry Rubenstein, the chair of the museum's political history division. "He never sold it because he didn't want it to be public. He wanted to avoid bringing back the arguments that he was anti-Christian."</p><p></p></blockquote><p><br /></p>liberal pastorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11957506289805625578noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20889056.post-14324946543840713232011-03-18T14:39:00.003-05:002011-03-18T14:48:46.766-05:00Gay Marriage Support Crosses ThresholdLooking around for good news on this Friday I see these results from a new ABC News/Washington Post <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/1121a6%20Gay%20Marriage.pdf">poll</a>:<br /><blockquote>More than half of Americans say it should be legal for gays and lesbians to marry, a first in nearly a decade of polls by ABC News and The Washington Post.<br /><br />This milestone result caps a dramatic, long-term shift in public attitudes. From a low of 32 percent in a 2004 survey of registered voters, support for gay marriage has grown to 53 percent today. Forty-four percent are opposed, down 18 points from that 2004 survey.</blockquote>Committed couples and stable families make for healthier children and a stronger society. Whether those couples are gay or straight makes no difference. You would think that every pro-family/children Christian would support gay marriage, wouldn't you?liberal pastorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11957506289805625578noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20889056.post-82903827243391652162011-03-18T13:58:00.004-05:002011-03-18T14:22:27.266-05:00It's Off to War We GoAgain. Hi Ho. Hi Ho. No Congressional debate needed. No clear definition of what the end game is, how success will be defined. (At least I didn't hear it from the President's remarks.) Just a promise from the President that there will be no troops on the ground in Libya. But we have lots of high-tech technologies and weapons to use and that military-industrial complex to feed. So it's off to the shores of Tripoli we go, again.liberal pastorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11957506289805625578noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20889056.post-74375403144134429022011-03-15T17:11:00.003-05:002011-03-15T18:07:05.832-05:00Rick Santorum on Separation of Church and StateFormer Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum (not a proud part of my home state history) was in Massachusetts speaking to a group of Catholics and he not only ripped former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for his health care law but he also ripped former President Kennedy, also from Massachusetts, for saying that he supported separation of church and <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2011/03/santorum_possib.html">state</a>:<br /><blockquote>Santorum decried what he called the growing secularization of American public life.<br /><br />He traced the problem to Kennedy's 1960 speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, in which Kennedy – then a candidate for president - sought to allay concerns about his Catholicism by declaring, "I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute."<br /><br />Santorum, who is Catholic, said he was "frankly appalled" by Kennedy's remark.<br /><br />"That was a radical statement," Santorum said, and it did "great damage."<br /><br />"We're seeing how Catholic politicians, following the first Catholic president, have followed his lead, and have divorced faith not just from the public square, but from their own decision-making process," Santorum said.</blockquote>Might it be possible that President Kennedy's faith was actually informing his decision-making? Might it possible that not all Catholic politicians share the same faith perspective as Santorum? Might it be possible here that the real radical is Santorum, who also added this little bit of historical commentary about another President:<br /><blockquote>"Jefferson is spinning in his grave," he added.<br /></blockquote>When Jefferson became President he discontinued the practice started by his predecessors George Washington and John Adams of proclaiming days of fasting and thanksgiving. He wrote this famous letter to the Danbury Baptists in response to their concerns about religious establishment:<br /><blockquote>Mr. President<br /><br />To messers Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, & Stephen S. Nelson, a committee of the Danbury Baptist association in the state of Connecticut.<br /><br />Gentlemen<br /><br />The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist association, give me the highest satisfaction. my duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, & in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.<br /><br />Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. [Congress thus inhibited from acts respecting religion, and the Executive authorised only to execute their acts, I have refrained from prescribing even those occasional performances of devotion, practiced indeed by the Executive of another nation as the legal head of its church, but subject here, as religious exercises only to the voluntary regulations and discipline of each respective sect.] Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.<br /><br />I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection & blessing of the common father and creator of man, and tender you for yourselves & your religious association assurances of my high respect & esteem.<br /><br />(signed) Thomas Jefferson<br />Jan.1.1802.</blockquote>Wanna guess whose statements about church and state really make Jefferson spin in his grave?liberal pastorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11957506289805625578noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20889056.post-892950729866448042011-03-07T09:27:00.006-06:002011-03-07T10:49:06.911-06:00When Liberation Movements Go ViralOne of the interesting scholarly and blog conversations that never ends is how much if any of the gospel accounts of Jesus life are based on things Jesus actually did or said. How much can we really know? There is one kind of this conversation that takes place on a level that debates whether Jesus even existed. You can read some of that conversation <a href="http://exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com/2011/02/godfreys-razor-and-historicized.html">here</a> and <a href="http://vridar.wordpress.com/2011/02/11/response-to-mcgraths-circularity-and-avoidance-of-the-methodological-argument/">here</a> if you are interested. I enjoy reading the posts but confess that even as a very liberal pastor who cares about historical accuracy I am hopelessly biased on this issue.<br /><br />Recently, though, I have been reading Richard Horsley's book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Powers-Conflict-Covenant-Hope/dp/0800697081/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1299515858&sr=1-3">Jesus and the Powers: Conflict, Covenant, and the Hope of the Poor</a>. and have been interested to see Horsley address Jesus' "fame". Our earliest gospel Mark states in the very first chapter that Jesus "fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee." Is this true? Is it possible? How popular was Jesus? How much of a "scene" did he make? How much of a movement did he have?<br /><br />Here is Horsley:<br /><blockquote>Toward the beginning of Mark's story, Jesus' mission appears to be "headquartered" in the village of Capernaum, at the northern end of the Sea of Galilee, along the frontier with Herod Philip's territory from the east. From this base, the mission and communication spread into surrounding villages. Mark's Gospel thus paints a picture different from the normally limited communication from village to village in agrarian societies: the interaction among Jesus, the disciples, and the responsive people generated an expanding network of communication around the countryside.<br /><br />...In these early accounts of the mission, Jesus delegates disciples to spread the proclamation and manifestation of the kingdom into other villages, where they are to work closely and stay with the people. Jesus' mission thus involved an intentional orchestration of communication across village lines. Though exaggerated, Mark's representations of rapidly expanding communication at least partly what was happening in Jesus' mission itself.</blockquote>Horsley cites a book I haven't read, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Domination-Arts-Resistance-Hidden-Transcripts/dp/0300056699/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1299516019&sr=1-1">Domination and the Arts of Resistance</a> by James C. Scott, as evidence of how "rumor" spreads among disparate communities and inflames hope and emboldens beaten down peasants to take action as they hear news of resistance and victory from other communities.<br /><br />Horsley thinks that this is what was happening with the Jesus movement in peasant villages around Galilee. His kingdom movement reminded the people that the were (or could choose to live) under the direct rule of God not Rome or the temple aristocracy. It inspired hope and action in the form of sharing of goods and healing both physical and spiritual. The news about Jesus was going out through intentional mission and through the peasant rumor mill. The Jesus movement, Horsley suggests, was real; it was spreading; and hence it was quickly and correctly perceived to be a genuine threat by the religious and political authorities.<br /><br />I find Horsley's explanation plausible. It could have happened this way. I certainly resonate with his description of Jesus' movement as being centered around spiritual/political/economic liberation.<br /><br />I also can't help but make the connection between Horsley's description of the surprising and almost explosive spread of the Jesus movement and events in the middle east right now. If you wanted to see evidence of how a liberation movement can spread rapidly and seem to come out of nowhere we are watching it happen before our eyes. I keep asking 'why now'? What has changed between one year ago or five years ago and today? Certainly the technology that has fueled the spread of "rumor" has penetrated these societies enough to make it possible to keep the news flowing and to make it nearly impossible to suppress from above. But there also has to be an element of frustration and anger and hope reaching a certain critical mass where it just needs to find an outlet. The good news about this movement is that it has been mostly peaceful, making a mockery of those who equate Islam with violence. Even better some of the government response has been peaceful. Alas this is not true everywhere.<br /><br />Still, to watch a movement go 'viral' in this manner is a reminder that it really does happen this way. It very well could have happened this way with Jesus.liberal pastorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11957506289805625578noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20889056.post-25906042381084720092011-03-04T12:38:00.003-06:002011-03-04T12:41:22.383-06:00Teachers Need to Sacrifice Like Wall Street BankersThis Jon Steward segment is priceless:<br /><br /><div style="background-color:#000000;width:520px;"><div style="padding:4px;"><embed src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:376266" width="512" height="288" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" base="." flashVars=""></embed><p style="text-align:left;background-color:#FFFFFF;padding:4px;margin-top:4px;margin-bottom:0px;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;"><b><a href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-march-3-2011/crisis-in-dairyland---for-richer-and-poorer---teachers-and-wall-street">The Daily Show</a></b><br/>Tags: <a href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/'>Daily Show Full Episodes</a>,<a href='http://www.indecisionforever.com/'>Political Humor & Satire Blog</a>,<a href='http://www.facebook.com/thedailyshow'>The Daily Show on Facebook</a></p></div></div>liberal pastorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11957506289805625578noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20889056.post-62236743204180645642011-03-02T18:27:00.004-06:002011-03-02T18:41:12.311-06:00How Should We Fix Our Budget ProblemsA new NBC/WSJ <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41876558/ns/politics/">poll</a> asks Americans to make choices about how to fill the hole in our budget:<br /><blockquote><p>The most popular: placing a surtax on federal income taxes for those who make more than $1 million per year (81 percent said that was acceptable), eliminating spending on earmarks (78 percent), eliminating funding for weapons systems the Defense Department says aren’t necessary (76 percent) and eliminating tax credits for the oil and gas industries (74 percent). </p> <p>The least popular: cutting funding for Medicaid, the federal government health-care program for the poor (32 percent said that was acceptable); cutting funding for Medicare, the federal government health-care program for seniors (23 percent); cutting funding for K-12 education (22 percent); and cutting funding for Social Security (22 percent).</p></blockquote>This just confirms my view (hope?) that the last election was an aberration as angry tea-partiers showed up in an off-year election and skewed the results, throwing the election into the hands of a political party that mistakenly believes it has been given a mandate for taking draconian action to cut government spending on social programs, not to mention taking out public-employee unions to boot. This is just the latest poll that suggests that these leaders are over-reading the results of the election and misreading the mood of the public.liberal pastorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11957506289805625578noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20889056.post-56685906594748933792011-03-02T09:52:00.003-06:002011-03-02T11:30:40.778-06:00Jesus the Village OrganizerI am about half-way through reading Richard Horsley's latest book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Powers-Conflict-Covenant-Hope/dp/0800697081/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1299086119&sr=1-3">Jesus and the Powers: Conflict, Covenant and the Hope of the Poor</a>. Horsley does a masterful job of spelling out the economic/political/religious milieu of Jesus. He provides a forceful reminder of the fact that the Temple in Jesus' day (and previously) was very much under the control of the Roman occupiers who supported the king who built and maintained it and appointed the high priests who ran it. Taxes were collected in the temple for the empire. The Temple was indeed much more than a house of God.<br /><br />Horsley depicts the scribes and the Pharisees as the intellectuals very much caught in the middle. Their livelihood depended on their service to the Roman-appointed leadership. But they were also keeping alive a religious tradition that breathed through and through with a message of liberation from oppression. They very much feared the results of active resistance and so for the most part collaborated to help put it down, but they also occasionally were moved to actual resistance as when students of the teachers Judas son of Sariphaeus and Matthias son of Margalothus tore down Herod's imperial eagle after his death. (909 Kindle)<br /><br />Meanwhile out in the villages of Galilee and Judea the peasants attempted to eke out an existence that was made more and more desperate by the forced taxation that supported the temple and the Hellenization projects of Herod. Most couldn't read but they kept alive the ancient remembered traditions of resistance and liberation:<br /><blockquote>The Village communities in which the Galilean and Judean peasants lived provided the sequestered sites in which they could cultivate their popular tradition and develop their "raw" resentment into a "cooked" discourse of their desire for dignity and hopes for deliverance. It was in the "hidden transcript" of the continuing cultivation of popular Israelite tradition in the village communities that past deliverance was remembered, and hopes for a better life nurtured. This was the fertile soil from which movements could grow... (1005 Kindle)</blockquote>In a period of time that spanned more than a century before and after the time of Jesus a series of peasant-led resistant movements, some messianic and some prophetic, came out of the villages and succeeded for varying periods of time in taking back village life from the Romans and their wealthy Jewish client leaders. Each, however, was eventually crushed by the overwhelming force and brutality of the Roman legions.<br /><br />The Jesus movement was one of these peasant-led movements. Horsley says it differed from the other resistance movements in this way:<br /><blockquote>Yet there was a significant difference between Jesus and his movement and the (other) popular prophetic movements. Both drew on the popular memory of Moses (and Joshua or Elijah). But, whereas the other prophets led their followers out of their villages and into the wilderness or up to the Mount of Olives in anticipation of God's new acts of deliverance, Jesus focused his mission on village communities and their concerns. Throughout Mark's narrative of Jesus mission in Galilee and beyond, Jesus works in villages and synagogues (which were village assemblies, not buildings.) (1149 Kindle)</blockquote>Jesus sent his envoys out to work in the villages. His renewal movement was about reclaiming covenant relations, social and economic, among the people living there. He knew well the indignities of village life under Roman role. His healing acts symbolized this:<br /><blockquote>This is perhaps nowhere more vividly expressed than in the two interwoven episodes of the twelve-year-old woman and the woman who had been hemorrhaging for twelve years (Mark 5:21-43). Both women are representative of the people, as symbolized by the "twelve." In both, the power of life is ebbing away. The lifeblood of the older woman had been steadily drained from her. The younger woman, just at the age when she should be married and being reproducing life in Israel, was "at the point of death." These are the representative figures of Israel in the Galilean villages where crowds eagerly greet Jesus. (1215 Kindle)</blockquote>Significantly, Horsley notes in these stories that the initiative to be healed comes from the people themselves and healing takes place in an interaction between Jesus and the people who respond to his message of hope and his genuine authority but are not merely passive recipients of Jesus power.<br /><br />Interesting read so far... I see Horsley making his own way here rejecting both the wisdom Jesus who left us memorable and timeless parables and aphorisms and the failed apocalyptic prophet whose martyrdom spawned a movement. Jesus, in Horsley's treatment, created an indigenous kingdom movement that spoke to concerns of peasant/village life.<br /><br />Horsley is great in the book's beginning describing the history of Israel's formation in reaction to a repeated history of imperial rule from external (Babylon, Egypt, etc.) and internal (David, Solomon, etc.) powers. As I mentioned earlier I found his treatment of the function of the temple as a seat and symbol of that imperial power to be particularly enlightening.liberal pastorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11957506289805625578noreply@blogger.com0