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Friday, December 28, 2007
At year-end, many news organizations compile their top 10 stories of the year. After a full year of the Daily Digest, here are my choices.
1. Faith & Politics. In a significant indication of how the conversation on faith and politics has changed in the U.S., expressions of religious faith played a central part in a year of presidential campaigning by candidates from both parties.
2. Region in crisis. The U.S. troop surge in Iraq reduced violence but has not led to political stability; tensions and military attacks grew between Turkey and the Kurds; the nuclear cat and mouse game continued with Iran; the Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan; and instability grew in Pakistan—culminating this week with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
3. Israel-Palestine. As the internal Palestinian struggle between Hamas and Fatah continued and the violence between Israel and Hamas in Gaza intensified, the Bush administration convened an international peace conference. The president plans his first trip to the region in January.
4. Democratic Congress. Democrats assumed control of Congress in January with the first woman speaker of the House in U.S. history, but presidential vetoes and Republican opposition prevented the passage of most major legislation, including troop withdrawals from Iraq and children’s health insurance. Congress did pass legislation increasing the minimum wage, expanding college aid, and reforming lobby and ethics rules.
5. Global warming. Awareness of the threat of global warming continued to grow in response to news coverage of the largest melting of the polar ice cap in history and Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change winning the Nobel Peace Prize. At a climate change treaty meeting in Bali, the U.S. refused to join other nations in pledging cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. On the religious front, the National Association of Evangelicals rebuffed James Dobson’s attempt to silence their concern for global warming.
6. Darfur. Another year has gone by, the violence and death continue, and the United Nations still cannot secure an adequate peacekeeping force on the ground.
7. Death penalty. The Supreme Court’s decision to hear a case involving the constitutionality of lethal injections led to a de facto nationwide moratorium on executions, while New Jersey became the first state to abolish capital punishment.
8. Immigration. Congress failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation. This resulted in more raids, with state and local governments passing and enforcing repressive legislation and the growth of a church-based new sanctuary movement.
9. Guns. The U.S.’s love affair with guns continued despite mass shootings at Virginia Tech University (32 dead), an Omaha, Nebraska shopping mall (eight dead), the New Life Church in Colorado Springs and Youth With a Mission in Arvada, Colorado (four dead). All three gunmen also died. If recent trends continue, approximately 10,000 others were also murdered with firearms this year.
10. Muslim-Christian dialogue. One-hundred-thirty-eight Muslim clerics and scholars sent an open letter to the leaders of Christian churches, “A Common Word Between Us and You,” proposing common ground on the shared values of loving God and loving neighbor. Hundreds of Christian leaders and scholars responded by welcoming the initiative.
Other stories of note included an uprising in Burma/Myanmar led by Buddhist monks; a growing mortgage crisis in the U.S.; the passing of Jerry Falwell; a growing split in the Anglican communion; new prime ministers in the U.K. (Gordon Brown) and Australia (Kevin Rudd). The Supreme Court upheld a ban on partial ban abortions; the “Jena 6” case highlighted continued racial injustice; “Scooter” Libby was convicted of lying to a grand jury; Karl Rove and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned; the steroid scandal in Major League Baseball went public, the collapse of a bridge in the Twin Cities highlighted growing problems with America’s infrastructure; controversy over torture and wiretapping continued; and North Korea closed and began disabling its only nuclear reactor producing weapons-grade plutonium.
For two views of the top 10 religious news stories of the year, see the Religious Newswriters Association and Christianity Today.
As we enter the New Year, continue to pray for our world as you read the news, remembering theologian Karl Barth’s advice “to take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.”
Duane Shank is the senior policy advisor for Sojourners - in addition to being our resident news digester.
Monday, December 24, 2007
We first published this reflection by Jim Wallis in 2002. It has since become our Christmas tradition, kind of our own Charlie Brown Christmas special, if you will. With the ongoing conflicts raging during each passing year, it remains tragically relevant.
 Silent Night, by Stanley Weintraub, is the story of Christmas Eve, 1914, on the World War I battlefield in Flanders. As the German, British, and French troops facing each other were settling in for the night, a young German soldier began to sing "Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht." Others joined in. When they had finished, the British and French responded with other Christmas carols.
Eventually, the men from both sides left their trenches and met in the middle. They shook hands, exchanged gifts, and shared pictures of their families. Informal soccer games began in what had been "no-man's-land." And a joint service was held to bury the dead of both sides.
The generals, of course, were not pleased with these events. Men who have come to know each other's names and seen each other's families are much less likely to want to kill each other. War seems to require a nameless, faceless enemy.
So, following that magical night the men on both sides spent a few days simply firing aimlessly into the sky. Then the war was back in earnest and continued for three more bloody years. Yet the story of that Christmas Eve lingered - a night when the angels really did sing of peace on earth.
Folksinger John McCutcheon wrote a song about that night in Belgium, titled "Christmas in the Trenches," from the viewpoint of a young British solder. Several poignant verses are:
"The next they sang was "Stille Nacht," "Tis 'Silent Night'," says I.
And in two tongues one song filled up that sky
"There's someone coming towards us!" the front line sentry cried
All sights were fixed on one lone figure coming from their side
His truce flag, like a Christmas star, shone on that plain so bright
As he bravely strode unarmed into the night.
Soon one by one on either side walked into No Man's land
With neither gun nor bayonet we met there hand to hand
We shared some secret brandy and we wished each other well
And in a flare-lit soccer game we gave 'em hell.
We traded chocolates, cigarettes, and photographs from home
These sons and fathers far away from families of their own
Young Sanders played his squeeze box and they had a violin
This curious and unlikely band of men.
Soon daylight stole upon us and France was France once more
With sad farewells we each began to settle back to war
But the question haunted every heart that lived that wondrous night
"Whose family have I fixed within my sights?"
'Twas Christmas in the trenches, where the frost so bitter hung
The frozen fields of France were warmed as songs of peace were sung
For the walls they'd kept between us to exact the work of war
Had been crumbled and were gone for evermore."
My prayer for the new year is for a nation and world where people can come out of their trenches and together sing their hopes for peace. We here at Sojourners will carry on that mission, and we invite you to continue on the journey with us.
Blessings to you and your families.
Friday, December 21, 2007
 When I got an invite to the premiere of the IMAX screening for I am Legend, I went to the theater expecting an evening of frothy fun and engaging eye candy - pure escapism at its best. While the sight of zombies up close and personal almost caused me to jump out of my seat a few times, I was more shocked to discover that this action-packed thriller struck an unexpected spiritual nerve.
In a nutshell, I am Legend presents the story of Robert Neville (Will Smith), a brilliant military virologist who was unable to contain a terrible man-made virus. For reasons we don't quite understand, as Neville has become immune to this deadly disease, he remains the last human survivor in New York City, and perhaps the rest of the world.
His days are spent driving around a desolate and deserted Manhattan as he tries in vain for a cure, as well as any sign that he is not alone. This search for meaning in a world destroyed my man's own hand somehow elevated this film from the other flicks that employ the latest in special effects to demonstrate in graphic detail the myriad of ways our planet could meet its final demise.
Even though Neville insists he does not believe in God, the film takes on a Judeo-Christian twist around the third act when Neville becomes faced with a decision that requires an act of sacrificial love. For me to say anymore will destroy the movie-going experience for anyone who intends to catch this flick. While die hard sci-fi fans may decry how the final act unfolds, I left the theater with hope in my heart, a sensation I seldom experience while watching zombies in action.
Even though Neville keeps his body in top physical shape, his soul starts to deteriorate under the pressures of living a solitary life where he is all alone. This demise of the self brought to mind the documentary Soul Searching: The Journey of Thomas Merton that I had seen the previous day. What struck me about Merton's journey was that even though he spent much of his time living in solitude, the Trappist monks living in the Abbey of Gethesmani provided the support that enabled him to live in community while being isolated.
Also, this week, I got the opportunity to observe Justin Fatica conduct a retreat for 7th and 8th graders at St. Gabriel's School in East Elmhurst, Queens. Yes, this self-proclaimed minister's style of full frontal evangelism in a Catholic setting does stir up some understandable controversy. The newly released HBO documentary, Hard as Nails, touches on some of the joys and pitfalls of this type of hard core street ministry to troubled teens. But what struck me by watching Fatica in action was that the core of his message comforts these abandoned adolescents by letting them know that they are not alone. They are guided by God.
MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. - Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude.
Becky Garrison explores ministries that reach those for whom church is not in their vocabulary in her new book, Rising from the Ashes: Rethinking Church (Seabury Books, 2007).
Teach me, Lord, to sing of your mercies. Turn my soul into a garden, where the flowers dance in the gentle breeze, praising you with their beauty. Let my soul be filled with beautiful virutes; let me be inspired by your Holy Spirit; let me praise you always.
Teresa of Avila
Complete Works
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How the oppressor has ceased!
How his insolence has ceased!
The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
the scepter of rulers,
that struck down the peoples in wrath
with unceasing blows,
that ruled the nations in anger
with unrelenting persecution.
The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
they break forth into singing.
Isaiah 14:4-7
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Thursday, December 20, 2007
 When I first landed in El Salvador, all I knew about the tiny Central American country was its war. What I found was lush mountain ranges, volcanoes, and air heavy with grief. It was 2003, and I was there to produce a documentary for a public radio series titled Despues de las Guerras/Centra America: After the Wars about the violence suffered by women during and after the 12-year civil war that ended in 1992 with a death toll of 75,000 mostly innocent civilians.
I returned to El Salvador in 2006 for six months on a Knight Fellowship with the International Center for Journalists. The violence, once largely relegated to gang controlled areas, had spread across the country. Impunity was rampant. Voices of dissent were marginalized. Rights curtailed in the interest of security. The first forceful voices I heard came from the pulpit, from Jesuits denouncing the violence and its profiteers.
I had the opportunity to interview Jesuit theologian Jon Sobrino. (See Goodness Revealed: An interview with liberation theologian Jon Sobrino in the January 2008 issue of Sojourners.) Just a few months earlier, the Vatican had publicized a written notification that branded his some of his writing as "erroneous and dangerous."
Sobrino admonished the church for drifting away from the reality of its flock. The U.S. and Europe, he said, are merely "anecdotes," their imperial gaze a perversion of the mission of Jesus on this earth. He challenged the assumption that wealthy nations can exploit poor nations and return later with a promise to save them.
Sobrino's book Where is God?: Earthquake, Terrorism, Barbarity, and Hope draws a compelling connection between the tragedy inflicted on New York by terrorists, El Salvador when a tremendous earthquake strikes, and in Afghanistan when a world superpower seeks vengeance.
Another important work that sets liberation theology in a current context is the anthology published in Sobrino's defense after the Vatican's sanction titled Getting the Poor Down From the Cross: Christology of Liberation. It contains the arguments for the tenets of liberation theology by some of the world's leading theologians, the primacy of the world's poor, and the duty of the Church to "walk with them."
In the epilogue, Sobrino writes, "If a Christology animates the poor of this world, victims of terrible sins - including ones committed by so-called believers - to maintain their faith in God and in his Christ, and to have dignity and hope, then this Christology will have its limitations of course, but I do not consider it to be dangerous in the world of the poor, but rather something positive. However, it is possible that it will be seen - and it has been seen - as dangerous in other worlds."
Michelle García recently completed a Knight Fellowship with the International Center for Journalists in El Salvador. Previously she wrote for The Washington Post from its New York bureau. She is based in New York.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
The year of 1968 was very significant in my life, and a decisive one for the nation. It was the year when the hopes borne by the social movements of the 1950's and 60's were dashed by the assassinations of, first, Martin Luther King Jr., and then Robert F. Kennedy.
If Robert Kennedy had lived to become president on the inside (as he surely would have) and Martin Luther King Jr. had lived to lead a movement from the outside, the U.S. and the world might be very different today. But the most hopeful political leader of his time and the most important movement leader of the century were both struck down, and 1968 was the turning point when everything began to go wrong in America. I remember my feelings at the time vividly. King had been the leader of the movements that had captured my imagination and commitment as a young activist; and Kennedy was the only politician who won my political trust. I was getting ready to take a break from college to work on his presidential campaign when he was killed.
Ever since 1968, the door has been closed to real social change in the U.S. Since 1968, we have been wandering in the wilderness. The coming New Year - 2008 - marks 40 years of that wandering, a passage of time I have been pondering as we enter into it.
I taught my last class for the fall semester at Harvard this week. The title of the course was "Faith and Politics: Should They Mix and How?" In the midst of a final class discussion of the central role faith is playing in this election season, a student abruptly asked me a personal question: "How many times have you been arrested?" I thought for a moment and replied, "Twenty two times." I told them that's what happens when social movements confront closed political doors. I said I was willing to do civil disobedience again, if it was called for, but that I was now hoping there might be a significant paradigm shift about to occur. I explained how social change seems to most readily occur when social movements push against open doors. Real social progress seems to require that combination - strong social movements and open political doors.
I believe we may be approaching just such a time. I have written before that we now have open political doors to the fundamental issues of social justice both in London, with the election of Gordon Brown, and in Australia, with the recent election of Kevin Rudd. Both understand the power of social movements and seem to be inviting them to push against the reluctance of political power to make real changes. In the U.S.'s election season this time, the operative word is now "change." The Democratic frontrunners are now mostly debating how real change can best occur, not whether it should. And the Republicans are distancing themselves from their own president, who has led the nation to a place that both alienates and embarrasses most U.S. citizens of both parties. The wrong direction didn't begin with George W. Bush, but he has certainly demonstrated how absolutely wrong the direction of the U.S. now is.
The people of the U.S. are very unhappy with the direction our nation has taken, and the polling about that is consistent. There will definitely be a snap back after the extreme and disastrous policies of the Bush administration. The Democrats hope the snap back will result in their victory; the Republicans hope they can still retain power by offering a change in direction themselves. But we must hope and work for a snap back that goes much further than either a Democratic or Republican victory. Indeed, whoever your favorite candidate is, he or she will not be able to really change the biggest and most significant issues at stake in the U.S. and the world without a social movement that pushes them to make those changes. Remember that Lyndon Johnson did not become a civil rights leader until Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks made him one. It was a social movement pressing on an open door.
That will be the vision and strategy of Sojourners in this crucial year of 2008 and beyond. We are in the business of building movments, not winning elections. This election is vitally important and we will be working hard to put the most important issues on the agenda. But we are already looking past the election to the kind of organizing and movement building that will have to be done. And the good news is that we see that movement already growing, more that I ever have since the fateful year of 1968.
Everywhere I go, something is happening. My new book, out on Jan. 22, profiles an emerging spiritual movement with a social agenda. It's called The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith and Politics in a Post-Religious Right America. The book charts how "great awakenings" in the past have featured a "revival" of faith that also changes society. It describes how we may well be on the verge of another such movement to make dramatic change on issues like poverty, pandemic diseases, climate change, human rights, and war and peace.
During my work on the book this year, the writing, praying, and vocational discernment got all nicely tangled up together. The "book tour," which will take us to many cities in early 2008, may feel more like a series of mini-revivals, and, this spring, we will begin a series of "justice revivals" that will last for many days in cities around the country over the next few years.
The dramatic changes occurring in many of our faith communities and constituencies, the energy and commitment of a new generation, and the openness of politics for change may indicate the beginning of a new and more hopeful period in the life of this country and the world. It may even be that after 40 years, we might finally be ready to come out of the wilderness. That is my hope and prayer as we enter the New Year of 2008. But it is a hope and prayer that will require, from all of us, the work of faith.
During Advent, as I kindle the wreath candles that mark the journey to the Bethlehem stable, I return to particular writers that I love and certain music that I can't seem to get through the seasons without. I have Advent habits.
For instance, I often re-read W.H. Auden's For the Time Being. In one portion King Herod weighs the threat to publiic order posed by the birth of the Christ child. Is the collatoral damage of murdering the male children justified in order to maintain security and social stability? If this Messiah survives, ponders Herod, then:
Reason will be replaced by revelation … Justice will be replaced by pity as the cardinal virtue, and all fear of retribution will vanish … The new aristocracy will consist exclusively of hermits, bums, and permanent invalids. The rough diamond, the consumptive whore, the bandit who is good to his mother, the epileptic girl who has a way with animals will be the heroes and heroines of the new age, when the general, the statesman, and the philosopher have become the butt of every farce and satire.
I listen to the San Antonio Vocal Art Ensemble's Guadalupe: Virgen de los Indios CD. The ancient Nahua Indian hyms welcoming the Christ child and extolling the virtues of Mary are haunting - interweaving complex indigenous harmonies gleaned from 400-year-old deerskin musical scores:
The world guards the memory of the life that He gave in the earth, and there in the heavens the presence of Your glory is felt. The vision of happiness, then, exists in the memory of this earth.
It's also an opportunity to keep company with the Bible's holy ones. Episcopal priest Margaret Guenther writes movingly about Anna and Simeon in the December issue of Sojourners. And Ade Bethune's silk screen Icon of the Mother of God reminds me that the saints are keeping watch over me – even in Advent's terrifying darkness.
Rose Marie Berger, a Sojourners associate editor, is a Catholic peace activist and poet.
Too many people come into community to find something, to belong to a dynamic group, to find a life which approaches the ideal. If we come into community without knowing that the reason we come is to discover the mystery of forgiveness, we will soon be disappointed.
Jean Vanier
Community and Growth
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Tuesday, December 18, 2007
There's no denying it. Immigration has become, and will continue to be, a hot-button issue in the presidential season. The question that remains is – what kind of conversation will we have around immigration? We're not off to such a good start. Thus far, the debate has looked more like a shouting match defined by scapegoating and xenophobia. One clear result has been a feeling among Hispanics across the country, not just undocumented immigrants, that their lives are more difficult, due to the failure of immigration reform and the increasing attention to the issue.
This cannot be the right kind of conversation. How, then, can we begin to change it?
Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform hosted a teleconference yesterday as part of an ongoing effort to do just that. The New York Times Politics Blog, The Caucus, highlighted the diversity of the speakers, calling for moral leadership on an issue that clearly affects us all:
A Catholic bishop, inner-city Baptist minister, megachurch pastor, and Latino religious activist convened on a conference call sponsored by the Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform on Friday to say that the 2008 candidates' actions aren't very akin to W.W.J.D. (What would Jesus do?)
The Christian organization agrees that immigration is a top priority this election cycle, but it wants candidates to approach the nation's illegal immigration issue from a moral perspective. It wants to see policies proposed that are based on preserving a decent life for those folks instead of what's most likely to win votes.
And in promoting legislation based on good Christian values, the religious leaders said it's imperative to steer clear of spiteful campaigning.
"It is clear that the hard work of crafting legislation and statutes that lead us toward a path of earned citizenship and effective enforcement remains a priority for all Americans," said Rev. Derrick Harkins, senior pastor at the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington. "It is just as clear that hateful, inflammatory, and destructive speech serves no purpose. No matter where one stands on the political spectrum regarding this issue, as Christians, we never possess the option to speak or act in a way that lessens the worth of any human being."
"Unfortunately, our presidential candidates are allowing themselves to be co-opted into the divisiveness of the debate," said Bishop Thomas Wenski, adding that he doesn't yet see a leader emerging from the pack.
"Mr. Romney has bet his presidential run on the issue," said Rev. Luis Cortes Jr., president of Latino poverty relief organization Esperanza. That's led Mr. Huckabee to take "a step to the right." Rev. Cortes also worried that the country's rising anti-immigrant sentiment, fueled in part by talk radio, is creating an increase in hate crimes against Hispanics.
"This issue isn't going away; and it won't go away with a few 'Let's just make the border stronger' comments," said Rev. Joel Hunter, senior pastor of the Northland parish in Longwood, Fla.
And in the spirit of Christmas, Bishop Wenski pointed out that after the baby Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph took him and fled the oppressive reign of King Herod: "Certainly, they didn't have visas to cross into Egypt."
Patty Kupfer is the Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform campaign coordinator at Sojourners.
Until very recently, I had no idea how hard it is for some of our friends just to find somewhere to lay themselves down to sleep at night. I knew that inner-city families moved around a lot, but I didn't realize how much heartache and humiliation goes before and after most of those moves, both for the families and for the neighborhoods they come and go from in search of better space.
Part of the problem is low incomes, of course, which leave almost everyone around here one minor setback way from missing rent. But beyond that, there are often rats and roaches and bedbugs to contend with, along with those normal, everyday conflicts with neighbors that, in this environment, can quickly become unacceptably dangerous. There are broken pipes and broken heaters and, as often as not, broken promises from landlords who live in a very different world.
Of course, the broken promises go both ways. Every day we see neighbors say and do things that would rattle almost any property owner; and we have learned the hard way not to immediately take any story of mistreatment at face value. Still, there is no denying that lots of money – much of it taxpayers' money – flows through neighborhoods like ours into the pockets of people who care too little about those they are supposed to shelter.
Last week our friend Helen and I spent the better part of three days driving all over town tracking down birth certificates, proofs of custody, income statements, and police background checks, hoping to qualify her for a HUD-subsidized apartment near enough that her grandson David could stay at his school and that both of them could stay in our fellowship. Helen's recently deceased mother had been paying the rent for all of them with her Social Security, but all they have now is the paycheck from Helen's part-time home health care job and David's food stamps.
Without my car, my computer, my money at certain offices, and my white male privilege at others, the whole endeavor would have been utterly impossible for Helen - who is herself in need of some home health care. Even with my help, we needed a few kind folks to bend a few silly rules in our favor. By the time we got everything squared away, I was worn out and cranky. Being poor is an awful lot of work.
Thank God there is a whole bunch of us here, living together and loving our neighbors as a team. While Helen and I were jumping through HUD hoops, Karen and Donna were tracking down furniture for her and three other families in the fellowship whose living spaces are nearly empty, and our newest partner, Mark Leeman, was tracking down donors who want to invest in some rental properties we can fix up and manage right, right here in the neighborhood.
We know we can't house everyone, but the more we see what's going on around us, the more bound and determined we are to take care of the handful of neighbors we feel God has given to be our closest friends. After all, there is no way to build the kind of close-knit community we keep dreaming of without first making sure that all of us are safe and sound.
 Bart Campolo is a veteran urban minister and activist who speaks, writes, and blogs www.bartcampolo.com about grace, faith, loving relationships and social justice. Bart is the leader of The Walnut Hills Fellowship www.thewalnuthillsfellowship.org in inner-city Cincinnati. He is also founder of Mission Year www.missionyear.org, which recruits committed young adults to live and work among the poor in inner-city neighborhoods across the USA, and executive director of EAPE, which develops and supports innovative, cost-effective mission projects around the world.
 So I don't know whether to laugh or cry about the latest progressive addition to the classic nativity scene: the separation wall.
Either way, I love it.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out Christian Peacemaker Teams' "No Way to the Inn" campaign. Or, to purchase your own little shocker, check out the UK-based charity, Amos Trust, online where you can purchase "A nativity set with a difference ... poignant, ironic, and made in Bethlehem. Available in two sizes." Just imagine what a great conversation starter such a display could be:
Uncle Al: "What is that wall doing separating Jesus from the wise men?"
You: "Well, this year, the wise men were denied security permits."
For more talking points, read my synopsis from last year. Join the campaign and tell us how it goes. Who knew Christmas could be so educational?!
(And sorry I waited so long to post this – since I last visited the site, Amos Trust has sold out of both nativity set sizes and are currently waiting for further supplies to come in from Bethlehem. And I learned they don't ship to the U.S. But you can still download a free " Bethlehem Pack" for prayers, reflections, and songs about Bethlehem.)
 Deanna Murshed is director of integrated marketing for Sojourners.
Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
Acts 4:32-35
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Gradually, the deep ambiguity of human life was turned from a burdensome into a freeing mystery. Freed from my energetic desire to constantly “get it” and “keep it together,” I could genuinely allow God to work in and through my abjections, not to make them better or neaten them up, but to allow me to be more compassionate, to judge others less, to serve them better.
Wendy M. Wright
The Rising
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Monday, December 17, 2007
 When I went to check my post office box after Thanksgiving, among the pile of mail waiting for me were review copies of Dinesh D'Souza's What's So Great about Christianity and Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light.
I first picked up D'Souza's bestseller. Throughout this book, he seems to possessed an amazing self-confidence that all the world's problems could be solved if only we would just become Christians. It reminded me of those books I read in my twenties back when I thought I knew all the answers. It's only been within the past few years that I've learned to start asking the right questions.
Yet, I have to admit that a side of me wished that I still possessed that absolute certainty about my faith. This year hasn't been an easy one for me on many fronts. In fact, I don't know where I'd be without my spiritual friends, who sometimes prayed on my behalf when I was too distracted to think straight.
When I picked up Come by My Light, I discovered a stark honesty that caught me off guard. Mother Teresa was not the woman the world thought we knew. As Shane Claiborne noted when I interviewed him for The Wittenburg Door, whenever people ask him about his trip to Calcutta, "they say, 'Oh, you met Mother Teresa,' like she glows in the dark or something."
While rest of the world put her on a pious pedestal, this seemingly simple nun from Calcutta spent most of her ministry wandering in the wilderness. She pours out her personal pain in private letters that she penned to her spiritual director and others in her life. These letters indicate that ever since she began her ministry to the poor, the voice of Jesus that guided her to start this work became silent. This silence continued throughout her entire ministry. She describes the darkness with a piercing honesty that brought me to tears.
Pray for me - for within me everything is icy cold - it is only that blind faith that carries me through for in reality to me all is darkness. As long as our Lord has all the pleasure - I really do not count.
As expected, atheists like Christopher Hitchens use her personal pain as further evidence that God does not exist. Hitchens gloats, "She was no more exempt from the realization that religion is a human fabrication than any other person."
Unlike this anti-God guru, Mother Teresa knew that just because God was absent from her heart, that didn't mean God had abandoned her. With a Job-like sense of determination, she learned to embrace this darkness as a part of her ministry.
Let Him do with me whatever He wants, as He wants, for as long as He wants. If my darkness is to light some soul - even if it be nothing to nobody - I am perfectly happy - to be God's flower of the field.
Just as I'm about to finish this book, Shane Claiborne just happened to arrive in New York City on the first Sunday of Advent. (For a recap of that visit, see "What Would Jesus Buy?") I'm not about to call him a saint because I know he'd just start to giggle and throw paper airplanes at me. This ordinary radical relayed stories of finding hope and healing through his work with those spiritual souls that society has discarded. I couldn't have asked for a better Advent candle to help illuminate my darkness.
During my interview with Shane, he remarked:
Someone asked me after she died, 'Is her work going to live on?' I actually think Mother Teresa died a long time ago when she submitted herself to Christ, and the thing that everyone loves about her was her work, that's Jesus. That's going to live forever. I've been to Calcutta since Mother Teresa died, and there were more people there than were ever there when she was alive. She's sort of like the seed that dies, and fruit is born.
For those who find themselves struggling in the darkness during this Advent season, I highly recommend reflecting on Mother Teresa's words. Through her prayers of pain, I pray that you can be reminded that you are not alone.
 Becky Garrison's books include The New Atheist Crusaders and their Unholy Grail: Their Misguided Quest to Destroy Your Faith (Thomas Nelson, January 2008), Red and Blue God, Black and Blue Church, and Rising from the Ashes: Rethinking Church.
The watered-down energy bill passed by the Senate on Thursday raised fuel-economy standards by 40 percent—not a bad thing. Congress also boosted the production of biofuels to 36 billion gallons per year by 2022—and 21 billion must come from something other than corn-based ethanol, which is good since it takes more fossil fuel to make corn ethanol than corn ethanol saves. According to a study by Cornell University, "Ethanol production using corn grain required 29 percent more fossil energy than the ethanol fuel produced." Sadly, Congress also gutted the portion of the bill that would have required utility companies to provide at least 15 percent renewable power and the part about increasing taxes on Big Oil.
For more on the inside story on biofuels, read Elizabeth Palmberg's "Do the Math: Don't buy the corporate agrofuel greenwash" (Sojourners, January 2008).
Rose Marie Berger is an associate editor for Sojourners.
Though it hardly seems possible now, we cling to the hope that God’s City will be established in the gift of the new heavens and the new earth. Our work is to live by the customs of the new City before it has fully come to be. In this way, the church draws the world to God. We hold forth not a condemning, but a welcoming word. All nations are invited to come to this City. And the quality of our interactions as a community will be a stronger witness than our words. The vibrancy of our worship will be a beacon of light that draws people home from the long darkness they have endured.
- Gerrit Scott Dawson
Called by a New Name
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Who has directed the spirit of the Lord,
or as his counselor has instructed him?
Whom did he consult for his enlightenment,
and who taught him the path of justice?
Who taught him knowledge,
and showed him the way of understanding?
Even the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
and are accounted as dust on the scales;
see, he takes up the isles like fine dust.
- Isaiah 40:13-15
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Friday, December 14, 2007
 A few months ago, we asked Sojourners' supporters to send messages to Burger King, asking them to join McDonald's and Taco Bell in increasing the sub-poverty wages of Florida tomato pickers. Almost 20,000 people responded, but Burger King's behavior has only gotten worse. Not only have they failed to heed the faith community's call to improve wages and working conditions for tomato pickers - they're working to undermine the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' existing agreements with other fast-food chains.
As Eric Schlosser, author of Fast-Food Nation, explained in the New York Times:
The migrant farm workers who harvest tomatoes in South Florida have one of the nation's most backbreaking jobs. For 10 to 12 hours a day, they pick tomatoes by hand, earning a piece-rate of about 45 cents for every 32-pound bucket. During a typical day each migrant picks, carries, and unloads two tons of tomatoes.
Yum! Brands (owner of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC) and McDonald's had agreed to pay a penny more per pound to increase wages by 70 percent per bucket, but this holiday season workers aren't receiving the increase. Why? Because Burger King has refused to pay the extra penny ...
and its refusal has encouraged tomato growers to cancel the deals already struck with Taco Bell and McDonald's. This month the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, representing 90 percent of the state's growers, announced that it will not allow any of its members to collect the extra penny for farm workers.
A Burger King spokesman responded, "Florida growers have a right to run their businesses how they see fit" - apparently, even if that means putting profits ahead of justice and dignity for their workers.
This Christmas, we're once again asking Burger King to stop being a scrooge and do the right thing. Click here to join us in sending a letter to the fast-food giant.
Michael Sherrard is the online organizer for Sojourners.
Jim wrote a piece a few weeks back about the new Bonhoeffer-quoting Aussie PM Kevin Rudd. Well, another fun fact is that he has appointed Peter Garrett, rock star turned environmental activist turned Member of Parliament, his new Minister for Environment. That's the Aussie version of putting Bono in charge of the foreign aid budget. Sort of.
If any of our non-Aussie readers know Garrett, it's likely as the singer for Midnight Oil, whose best known album was Diesel and Dust, with the hit single "Beds Are Burning" in 1988. They made many great albums since then, finally breaking up in 2002 when Garret chose to focus on politics. Knowing his music work much better than his political career—having seen the Oils live numerous times over the years—I'm curious if any readers from Down Under have comments on how his political role has changed his activism.
 Either way, I'll continue to remember him as the lanky, frenzied, six-foot-six screaming skeleton whose music helped to inspire my own activism. Also, he's a church-going Christian, which doesn't necessarily make him a better politician, though I do think it made him a better rock star, as his faith-infused lyrics—which railed against environmental degradation, militarism, and consumerism—were an early and unlikely witness to my budding integration of faith and politics.
Though I discovered them while a freshman in high school in the early 90s, the first Midnight Oil album I bought was their 1985 release, Red Sails in the Sunset, which I found in the used rack at my local music store. This snippet from "Who Can Stand in the Way" is a great one for the Christmas season:
Now choppers strafe the supermaket sky and people wonder why
chopping down tons of trees got seas of print not a soul can read say
Why do I drown you build brick boxes one by one now they block my sun
But it's metal on metal it's the dance of T.V.
If Christ were here he'd camera check he'd cry so loud the planes would stop
He'd cry so loud the earth would shake and men would fall in tinsel town
There's just one thing, yes there's just one thing
Who can stand in they way when there's a dollar to be made
Ryan Rodrick Beiler is the Web editor for Sojourners.
"We have the ability to solve this crisis and avoid the worst of its consequences, if we act boldly, decisively and quickly", said Al Gore in is Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. He called on the U.S. and China, the worst polluters, to stop blaming others and take action "or stand accountable before history for their failure to act." God calls us to care for creation and the generations to come; we, too, will stand judged if we do not rouse from our doze and not only call for action on the national scene, but set an example with our own actions.
I was recently in Germany at a gathering of Catholics and Protestants discussing what kind of Europe they wanted, especially around the issues of peace, environment, and human suffering. I was heartened by the signs of making a difference of the long time efforts at the issues of peace and environment. One of the outcomes of the meeting was to call on the Church to set an example of care for the environment in every new building project they do, making sure they were energy efficient, used solar or thermal technology, etc. I hope we challenge the Church here in the U.S. to set an example, not only in new construction efforts, but in retrofitting our buildings, in encouraging parishioners to walk more, (drive less), to re-use, etc.
Bethel New Life, a faith-based community development corporation on Chicago's west side, built a "smart, green building" at a major transit stop in the community, cutting energy usage in half with a green roof, solar panels, super insulation, etc. Bethel recently received the GOLD LEED rating for environmental excellence, a first in a low-income community. The building, connected to the transit platform, houses a day care center, employment services, a community-focused bank, and community owned businesses - a coffee shop and sandwich shop, among others. This development had been a long and tortuous effort - in assembling the funds, acquiring building permits, and finding contractors who could do things differently. It is a great example of intentional development that creates multiplying impact on community and environment.
 Mary Nelson is president emeritus of Bethel New Life, a faith-based community development corporation on the west side of Chicago. She is also a board member of Sojourners.
As I do more reading about Darfur, I've had to re-examine some of my assumptions about genocide. I'd tended to think about genocides on the model of the Holocaust, which involved a massive logistical undertaking by a ruthlessly evil state whose armies were strong enough to conquer multiple other nations.
The genocide in Darfur is intentionally caused by a ruthlessly evil state, but that's where the similarities end. Khartoum's strategies in Darfur - as in southern Sudan before the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005 - are the methods of a government that is not only evil and selfish, but weak.
Faced with insurgencies in Darfur, Khartoum chose a strategy based on weakness - rather than go to the expense of fighting its own wars, the regime recruited ethnically based proxy militias. Rather than go after the actual rebels, those militias, egged on and given air support from Khartoum, have pursued a scorched-earth policy of murdering, raping, and displacing civilians who happen to be of the same ethnic groups as the rebels. (Those would be the ethnic groups which, in an earlier divide-and-conquer move, the government had been economically and politically marginalizing even more than it marginalized the other residents of the desperately poor region.)
For a regime willing to spend provincial citizens' blood like water, genocide simply seems like the cheapest way of holding onto power.
The bad news is that the victims of a genocide of convenience are just as dead or traumatized as they would have been if the crimes' instigators had some different motivation. And, given the upsurge in violence against humanitarian workers, and the government's efforts to drive people from the comparative safety of the camps, there's the potential for a lot more people to die.
The good news is that this will be much, much easier to stop than the Holocaust. Khartoum can be brought to heel by coordinated economic, political, and diplomatic pressure - as was demonstrated just three years ago, when a U.S.-led coalition of countries prodded Khartoum into signing a substantive peace deal with rebels in southern Sudan (and in Darfur, in contrast to southern Sudan, there aren't even any proven oil fields). The first priority should be pushing Khartoum to stop dragging its feet on its agreement to admit U.N./African Union peacekeepers who will defend civilians.
Recently, a committed pacifist I know startled me by grimly joking that we should nuke Khartoum. The gallows humor was understandable, given the horror of the situation. And transforming the international outrage over Darfur into effective international economic and political sanctions will not be easy or simple. But nothing remotely resembling World War II (or any war) is called for to stop this genocide-on-the-cheap.
Elizabeth Palmberg is an assistant editor of Sojourners.
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We still need prophets to summon us back to the spiritual roots of wholeness and peace. We still need broadcasters of God’s word and magnifiers of God’s truth, so that we will understand and turn and be healed.
- Kenneth L. Waters, Sr.
I Saw the Lord
Thursday, December 13, 2007
This will be my final post for the God's Politics blog in 2007, and given that it's the time of year for lists, here's my choice of the films that have struck me the most in the past 12 months. (I should acknowledge that I haven't seen There Will Be Blood as it hasn't been released in my homeland yet – but on past form, Paul Thomas Anderson's film is likely to deserve a place on this list.) In the name of the eccentricities permitted to those of us who love films almost as much as real life, and out of kindness to the fine readers of this blog, I'll list a Top 11 – lovers of This is Spinal Tap will understand why. Joint 11: The King of Kong – the documentary about the battle to become the world Donkey Kong champion gets on the list for pure entertainment value, and the recognition that all of us have to find joy in the ordinary/ La Vie en Rose – because it has at its centre a portrayal of an artist, Edith Piaf, that manages to be both a reminder of the often tragic dimensions of the creative process. And, quite simply, one of the finest performances I've ever seen on screen, from Marion Cotillard in the title role. 10: Superbad – a raucous comedy about high school pals who ultimately realize that nothing – not even beer or beautiful girls – can help you negotiate life better than friendship. 9: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford – an existential Western that names the ambivalence of attributing heroic metaphors to men who kill. 8: Atonement – a dark film that asks how much we can forgive or get over our own past wrongs; its ambivalent answer requires us to think long after the credits have rolled. 7: The Lives of Others – the reflective, sculpted, seductive German movie about spying, jealousy, hope, and the possibility of change. 6: Zodiac – a serial killer film that doesn't indulge the audience's ambivalent desire to see violence that excites us. 5: Ten Canoes – an extremely funny, smart and moving film about an Australian aboriginal father teaching his son a lesson about patience while building the eponymous boats. 4: Into Great Silence – which follows the lives of Carthusian monks over the space of a year; whose appeal to massive urban audiences indicates something profound about our desire for stillness. 3: Into the Wild – Sean Penn's film, with the best male performance of the year from Emile Hirsch as Christopher McCandless, a young man who resisted consumerism by hitchhiking to Alaska. He was trying to find himself – and ended by realizing too late that two keys to a rich life are a commitment to naming reality and investing in community. 2: No Country for Old Men – a magnificent drama that tells us we need different ways of responding to evil, and that these ways may in fact be the very old values of bearing each other's burdens and respecting each other's lives. We need to tell each other different stories about how the world works if we are to avoid destroying each other. Which brings me to my choice for not only the best, but the most truthful film of the year: 1: Once - the little Irish film that could. A musical that feels like real life; a love story in which the protagonists never even kiss; a drama that is funny, and a comedy that is moving; a film about healing ourselves by telling the truth to each other. See you next year, at the movies.
 Gareth Higgins is a Christian writer and activist in Belfast, Northern Ireland. For the past decade he was the founder/director of the zero28 project, an initiative addressing questions of peace, justice, and culture. He is the author of the insightful How Movies Helped Save My Soul and blogs at www.godisnotelsewhere.blogspot.com
O Lord, be gracious to us; we wait for you.
Be our arm every morning,
our salvation in the time of trouble.
- Isaiah 33:2
We live today in a world of growing isolation, frantic activity, and desperate violence, where paradoxically, we find ourselves longing for both solitude and companionship, intimacy and community. Some of us may look back to times when life seemed to make sense and relationships were more certain. Whether or not such times ever existed, we nevertheless long today for relationships that acknowledge who we are and who we want to be. We want someone to hear us, to hear our hearts beating, to hear our deepest longings—even longings of which we dare not speak.
- Sondra Higgins Matthaei
Faith Matters
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Wednesday, December 12, 2007
It happened again. A presidential candidate's debate in two languages. Just as the Democratic presidential candidates had done before, the Republicans have followed suit - a presidential candidates debate on Spanish-language channel, Univision. (Tom Tancredo was the only candidate who did not attend the debate). I blogged on the earlier Democratic debate and thought it only equitable to do the same again.
I think what is critical here in both nationally-televised debates is a healthy model of dialogue that is necessary on the national scene. This dialogue says we respect your culture and language. Allowing for your thoughts and words to be translated into another language can be a metaphor for inclusion and welcoming. I am not arguing that English should not be spoken (All the candidates answered in English and most immigrants work hard to learn English, cf: Pew research, etc.) What I am saying is that as a country we are looking for is conversations and policies that respect the dignity of the other.
As a person of faith, pastor, and follower of Jesus Christ, I am desirous of respectful debate and dialogue. On blogs, radio-shows, and political advertisements ideological and theological differences have often reduced some to more base temptations of demonizing the other (be they Republican, Democrat, immigrant, citizen, male or female). Frankly, this is not consistent with the gospel and a call to love our neighbor and even our enemies. Jesus even said, "Love your enemies." As a people we need to move beyond the childish temptation to dehumanize those we disagree with.
Dignity means you both speak and listen. Dignity may help us see someone who is radically different from us and call them by their name. Dignity transcends political ideologies and racial, ethnic, and geographic boundaries. Dignity is a faithful witness to a faith that says, "Por que de tal manera amó Dios al mundo (For God so loved the world….)"
Speaking in Spanish, Korean, Mandarin, German, etc. is a linguistic affirmation that God loves the world. Presidential candidates need not speak these languages but simply affirm the humanity and dignity of those who do.
Rev. Gabriel Salguero is the pastor of the Lamb’s Church of the Nazarene in New York City, a Ph.D. candidate at Union Theological Seminary, and the director of the Hispanic Leadership Program at Princeton Theological Seminary. He is also a Sojourners board member.
The denomination which I am now seeking to enter and belong to, the Episcopal Church, is a denominaton that many others are now seeking to depart.
Such a situation carries within it two things: danger and opportunity. The danger is self evident. The opportunty will come from listening to the jackhammer on our roof. The image of a hammer on the roof comes from my Bishop Greg Rickel. I've added "jack" to the "hammer" to note the severity of the "noise." But we must remember that we are people of the paschal mystery. Out of death, can come new life and renewed purpose.
Both the modern liberal and the modern conservative frameworks for being church are crashing down around us. From these ruins, both we and our more conservative friends need new to forge new alternatives and pathways forward for being church and working together on the core things we hold in common: Love of Triune God, the creed of Nicea, the dominical sacraments, the story of Jesus recorded in the scriptures, (albeit with varying frameworks for interpreting the scriptures among the churches) the call to mission, the call to reconciled relationships with one another reflective of the relational being of God, and the call to loving service, in and for God's world.
We who remain in the Episcopal Church should not waste time and missional energy being angry and "against" those who are more conservative, but instead direct energy and resources towards engaging renewed mission, reconciliation and service.
Let us pray for those have left us and ask their prayers for us who remain.
And let those of us who remain in the Episcopal Church give thanks for the "Interim Report House of Deputies Committee on the State of the Church," November 2007, which says:
As Episcopalians, we approach and express our faith and relationship with Christ through our Baptismal Covenant and Eucharistic community. Now is the time to articulate and renew these leadership trajectories, and to re-kindle enthusiasm for both evangelism and mission... We need to undertake these efforts with a sense of urgency: urgency in evangelism, urgency in leadership development, urgency in outreach, urgency in structural reorganization—but first and foremost, urgency in more clearly defining who we are, where God is calling us to go, and how we should "press ahead" in mission in response to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
With this new urgency, there is much to be done. Anglimergent is small, and newly forming cohort of emerging Anglican leaders that ready to be put to serious work to help lead and transform our church around and renewed focus on mission, reconciliation and service in the way of Jesus Christ. There are amazing missional opportunities before us. It is Advent once more.
 Karen Ward is Abbess of the Church of the Apostles: An Intentional, Sacramental Community in the Way of Jesus Christ. www.apostleschurch.org
Last week, a Liberty University student asked Gov. Mike Huckabee to account for his recent surge in the polls. "There's only one explanation for it, and it is not a human one," Huckabee claimed, "It is the same power that helped a little boy with two fishes and five loaves feed a crowd of 5,000 people. And that's the only way our campaign could be doing what it is doing." In other words, God apparently wants Mike Huckabee to be president—or, at the very least, win the Iowa caucuses. And, evidently, Mike Huckabee wants evangelical Christians to think that God has uniquely chosen him for office, as many believed God chose George W. Bush.
There is good reason for Christians to take theological offense at these claims—and that would be upon the basis the doctrine of providence. Very generally, providence is the idea that God orders human events that enacts God's will for the universe. In popular American religion, as Gov. Huckabee articulated, providence often becomes God's direct intervention in specific historical acts. I once heard George Marsden, the eminent evangelical historian with whom I studied in graduate school, refer to this version of providence as "the finger of God" directing human events.
But finger-of-God explanations are dangerous in relation to politics. If God is the power behind a candidate, then, if that candidate wins, he or she is both beyond reproach and immune to criticism—because, of course, that person is seen as divinely appointed or anointed. The politician's actions are synonymous with God's will. This opens the door for political silliness (God desires tax cuts) or hubris (God favors our political party)—as well as making God responsible for a host of reprehensible or potentially evil acts in the forms of injustice, oppression, or war.
Of course, western Christians once believed in finger-of-God politics—during the Middle Ages in the doctrinal form of the divine right of kings. This doctrine was eventually challenged from within Christian theology itself, when the Puritans argued that divine right had to be balanced with reason and responsibility within the body politic. Although the Puritans did not always practice what they preached, their tradition—as articulated by John Locke—undermined supernatural pretensions to rule. Locke's rejection of the divine right of kings was one pillar of the revolutionary republican politics upon which the U.S. was founded.
But rejecting "finger of God" theories of providence does not necessarily make one a secularist. It is possible to recognize providence in politics, while leaving room for nuance, humility, and mystery. Instead of seeing God as causing specific actions, it seems preferable to understand providence as the unfolding of God's story through time—a tale of sin, reconciliation, justice, and peace from creation to the end of history, of which God shares with us the narrative trajectories, not the specific twists of plot.
In this story, God does not control human actions as a divine puppet master. Rather, as human beings encounter the story, we change and our actions begin to conform to God's narrative of shalom. In this way, God's intentions unfold as we practice faith in humble gratitude that God has invited us into the story. Providence is not divine Mapquest or supernatural tom-tom. Rather, providence is a pilgrimage of God's people in time as they seek to live in mercy, kindness, and grace—and that is where God's will is made known. Not God's finger, providence is the breath of God, the spirit enlivening human beings to do justice.
Any number of the current candidates, Republican and Democrat, offer visions of how they understand their lives in relationship to an unfolding story of God's justice. But no one candidate should or can claim God's anointing on his or her campaign. If nothing else, American Christians might look at the last eight years as an example of the folly of finger-of-God politics.
Diana Butler Bass holds a Ph.D. in American religious history from Duke University. As an independent scholar, she is the author of six books including Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith (Harper One, 2006).
Ah, you who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
Ah, you who are wise in your own eyes,
and shrewd in your own sight!
Ah, you who are heroes in drinking wine
and valiant at mixing drink,
who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
and deprive the innocent of their rights!
- Isaiah 5:20-23
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Though it hardly seems possible now, we cling to the hope that God’s City will be established in the gift of the new heavens and the new earth. Our work is to live by the customs of the new City before it has fully come to be. In this way, the church draws the world to God. We hold forth not a condemning, but a welcoming word. All nations are invited to come to this City. And the quality of our interactions as a community will be a stronger witness than our words. The vibrancy of our worship will be a beacon of light that draws people home from the long darkness they have endured.
- Gerrit Scott Dawson
Called by a New Name
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Tuesday, December 11, 2007
 A few years ago I remember a pastor friend telling me they tried something a little different for their Christmas services. Instead of the usual holiday décor and clutter of the sanctuary, they brought in a bunch of manure and hay and scattered it under the pews so the place would really smell like the stank manger where it all began. I remember laughing hysterically as he described everyone coming in, in all their best Christmas attire, only to sit in the rank smell of a barn. They even brought a donkey in during the opening of the service that dropped a special gift as it moseyed down the aisle. Folks looked awkwardly at each other, and then busted out laughing. It was one of the most memorable services they've ever had. Certainly folks came face to face with the "reason for the season" and the reality of what it must have been like for the Savior of the universe to enter the world, far from the shopping malls, as a refugee who found no room in the inn.
Imagination.
That's what our Church and our world seem to be so hungry for–that "renewing of the mind" that will allow us not to "conform to the patterns of the world" as Romans says. I am incredibly hopeful this Advent, because there are so many signs of Christians who are longing for new ways to celebrate our Savior that are not cluttered with the noise of shopping and infected with the myth that happiness must be purchased.
On the biggest shopping day of the year ("Black Friday"), a bunch of us here in Philly headed to the Gallery Mall to exorcise the demons of the Shopocalypse and to heal the disease of Affluenza. Dozens of joyful, singing, dancing, liberated consumers converged on the mall to invite people to reimagine the season. With messages of "Love doesn't cost a thing," "Spend time not money," and "Buy less and love more," the celebration was magnetic. One woman passing by (shopping bag in hand) stopped and said pensively, "Why do we do this empty routine every year? Thanks for making me think."
Sometimes we just need permission to say "NO" to the 450 billion shopping dollars spent during this holiday, and to remember the poor, the refugees, the invisible people abused all over the world making the products we buy in the name of the one born in the manger. Besides, who knew that buying nothing could be so much fun?
One pastor told me that the kids in his congregation looked at the Christmas story with fresh vision. They saw that Jesus only got three gifts that first "Christmas" in Bethlehem … (and they weren't very good gifts at that–myrrh? And what's a baby to do with frankincense?) The kids in his congregation decided that they should not get more gifts than Jesus, and agreed that they would settle for three presents and give the others away.
Imagination.
It is a season pregnant with hope. Congregations across the empire have joined projects like Buy Nothing Christmas and other creative alternatives to the corporate holiday. Some pastor friends of mine started a new project called "The Advent Conspiracy" which has snowballed into an international movement "restoring the scandal of Christmas by worshipping Jesus through compassion not consumption." On their Web site they say:
While we are not living under Herod's reign, there is another empire of consumerism and materialism that threatens our faithfulness to Jesus. Jesus brought with him such an extraordinary Kingdom that is counter-culture to the kingdoms of this world.
That's the Christmas we love. These movements are not just a rant against consumerism but an invitation to renew our minds. These expressions of the true Christmas Spirit are not just about protesting, but protestifying (as our brother McLaren likes to say). They are protestifying that the most precious things in life cannot be bought or sold or stolen. And they are a reminder that the best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them away … lessons we can learn from the kids, or from our Savior who gave left the glory of heaven to join us in the mess we've made of earth.
 Shane Claiborne is a Red Letter Christian, author of The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical, and a founding partner of The Simple Way community, a radical faith community that lives among and serves the homeless in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia.
 This is an announcement mostly for those who post comments on this blog. As many have complained, our comments are often less a respectful dialogue, and more a reflection of our polarized partisan culture in which the most strident voices dominate. A typical complaint:
I think sometimes I get offended by the arrogant curmudgeon types that act incurious but find space and time to belligerently persist, usually to the point where people tune her or him out. We all know them. It's distracting and not a fun time.
We've tried a couple of things to improve the comment climate. We began monitoring the blog more actively, having various Sojourners staff members take a turn each day removing posts that violate the Beliefnet Rules of Conduct. But that always leaves a lot to timing and interpretation - while dealing with a formidable daily volume - making fairness and consistency a Sisyphean task. Here are the key guidelines that are the most difficult to enforce:
You agree that you will be courteous to every Beliefnet member, even those whose beliefs you think are false or objectionable. When debating, express your opinion about a person's ideas, not about them personally.
And:
Disruptive behavior may include creating a disproportionate number of posts or discussions to disrupt conversation ... making statements that are deliberately inflammatory ... or any behavior that interferes with conversations or inhibits the ability of others to use and enjoy this website for its intended purposes.
One aspect of courtesy and respect that's especially difficult to enforce is a climate of intellectual honesty. Most often this is violated by attributing views to bloggers or commenters based on unfair or inaccurate assumptions. Another typical complaint comment:
Those are our values. Please try to respect them ... it is difficult, if not impossible, for me to find any good will when you misportray my position.
Examples of this include labeling people "pro-choice" or "pro-abortion" because they do not support absolutist measures to criminalize abortion such as a constitutional ban. One can oppose abortion in principle without making it a crime under all circumstances. Another example is to label Jim Wallis or any other writer a "Democratic shill" because of support for particular policies that Democrats support, or criticism of Bush or Republicans. Minimal research would show that we praise Republican voices when we agree with their positions and criticize Democrats when we disagree with theirs, measuring both by our principles. But this post isn't meant to recycle those debates. It's to encourage commenters - on all sides of these issues - to have the intellectual integrity to discuss issues without caricaturing opponents as a way of writing off their views.
We are not simply complaining about conservative critics. Some of the worst vitriol in our comments has been from self-described liberals. We've even been accused of censorship for removing opposing views (even admirably so by those who disagreed with the comments that were removed). However, it should be clear to anyone reading our comments that we allow plenty of opposing viewpoints to be expressed. Applying our guidelines as consistently as possible, we routinely remove posts that insult our critics, and agree with the desire for honest and civil discourse expressed by many of you:
If you have an axe to grind, I, and I think most people on the blog, would appreciate not hearing about it. If your comments are intended to elevate the discourse, well, that is the intention of a blog such as this. With some of the sensitive issues that are discussed on this blog it is not surprising that there are strong opinions, but complaining without providing solutions and attacking the character of a person who posts their thoughts does nothing to positively contribute to the discussion. So, are you elevating or grinding?
So, here's the deal. After much deliberation we've decided to take the more serious step of permanently blocking individuals that violate the rules of conduct more than a certain number of times. We will warn them via email before blocking them to give them one last chance. You have our pledge that we will apply this policy without partiality to the ideas expressed, but solely to the manner. The way we see it, we've opened our house to you all for some vigorous conversation. We expect strong views to be expressed. But like any good host, we will ask a rude guest to leave if they are being abusive. This is common practice on other blogs and a far milder solution than some who have shut down comments altogether and only respond to hand-picked comments via e-mail - an option we'd rather not take.
No doubt this announcement will stir debate, which we anticipate and welcome.
Ryan Rodrick Beiler is the web editor for Sojourners.
For the world and time are the dance of the Lord in emptiness. The silence of the spheres is the music of a wedding feast. The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life, the more we analyze them out into strange finalities and complex purposes of our own, the more we involve ourselves in sadness, absurdity, and despair. But it doesn not matter much, because no despair of ours can alter the reality of things, or stain the joy of the cosmic dance which is always there. Indeed, we are in the midst of it, and it is in the midst of us, for it beats in our very blood, whether we want it to or not. Yet the fact remains that we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the winds and join in the general dance.
- Thomas MertonNew Seeds of Contemplation
Monday, December 10, 2007
Nice piece this morning by James Carroll in The Boston Globe. He writes about what he calls "the radical militarization of foreign affairs."
A MAN bit a dog last week. Not just any man, and not just any dog. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates decried the vast disproportion between America's annual investment in the Pentagon - something like $700 billion - and what is spent on the State Department - about $35 billion. That's less, Gates said in a speech in Kansas, than the Defense Department spends on healthcare. The total number of foreign service officers is about 6,600 - which is less, Gates said, than the number of military personnel serving on one aircraft carrier strike group. The Secretary of defense identified himself as the man biting the dog when he called for "a dramatic increase in spending on the civilian instruments of national security - diplomacy, strategic communications, foreign assistance, civic action, and economic reconstruction and development."
Carroll correctly concludes
Arguably, the single largest threat to national security is the growing gulf between desperately impoverished peoples and those who have what they need to live. What is the Pentagon budget to that? Environmental degradation is also a massive national security threat. How do aircraft carriers help with that?
Confronting the gross inequities and extreme poverty in so much of our world would do far more for both national and global security than constantly increasing military budgets. Swords will be beaten into plowshares, the prophet Micah tells us, when each person has their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid.
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean.
- Matthew 23:25-26
Many find Jesus’ teaching on enemy love and forgiveness a stumbling block to faith. Because we find it too difficult to practice, we dismiss it as unrealistic and utopian. We should think again, and we should pray that it is not unrealistic, because this congruence of Jesus—the consistency between his teaching on forgiveness and his action on the cross—is really our only hope. It is all that stands between us and the consequences of our monumental frailty. Thank God today that Jesus died as he lived, because with those words, "Father, forgive..." he forgives us all, and he forgives us still.
- Peter Storey
Listening at Golgotha: Jesus’ Words from the Cross
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 The Nov. 27 Annapolis meeting on Israel/Palestine has launched us into a momentous one-year process to seek a permanent peace agreement between Israel and its neighbors. What is at stake is whether after more than 50 years of ghastly conflict and widespread bloodshed, genuine peace can come to one of the most dangerous areas and most divisive problems in our world.
Important steps were taken at Annapolis. The leaders of Israel and Palestine publicly pledged to negotiate a permanent peace before President Bush leaves office. They have promised to meet personally every two weeks. And the U.S., especially Condoleezza Rice, is committed to working vigorously to use America's enormous influence to facilitate the process.
Not everyone is pleased. Christians United for Israel totally oppose any plan in which Israel gives up any land to a Palestinian State (an essential component of a final peace). CUFI has already publicly protested the Annapolis meeting and will certainly organize a segment of the evangelical world to oppose a two-state solution.
Fortunately, CUFI represents only a minority of American evangelicals. I am sure that a majority of evangelical leaders agree with the new "An Evangelical Statement on Israel/Palestine," released on Nov. 28, signed by more than 80 evangelical leaders who endorse a two-state solution and call on evangelical Christians to encourage, pray for, and support all the leaders working to reach this historic goal (go to ESA's website to read the statement and add your signature).
CUFI is already bombarding the White House with letters opposing this peace effort. We must mobilize those evangelicals (a majority of the evangelical world, I am sure) that do support a two-state solution to make its voice known now.
On Friday, Nov. 30, I was on Bill Moyers' Journal (Public Affairs Television) to talk about what evangelicals think about a two-state solution.
Clearly some initial important steps have been taken. But genuine programs will only happen if the U.S. vigorously pushes both Israelis and Palestinians. I believe Condoleezza Rice wants to do that.
Now is the time to tell the president you want him to redouble his efforts to promote a permanent peace between Israel and Palestine. Sign the new statement, write the White House, and tell your congressional representatives to push hard for peace in the Holy Land.
 Ron Sider is president of Evangelicals for Social Action, a professor and director of the Sider Center on Ministry and Public Policy at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a member of the Red Letter Christians.
Friday, December 07, 2007
Joy and I woke up yesterday morning at 5:00 a.m. to the sounds of our screaming four-year-old, Jack, who was suffering from extreme abdominal pain. We tried to console and cuddle him, but to no avail. "Don't touch me, it really hurts!" he cried, when we tried to examine or gently rub his sore tummy. This was not like him at all; he is not an overreactive kid. We had to go get him at school that day because he was vomiting and had diarrhea. He had a quiet afternoon at home and went to sleep easily, but now was literally wailing and inconsolable.
It's every parent's greatest fear - a sick child, maybe very sick, and in the middle of the night. How serious might it be? Could it be appendicitis - or something equally bad? This wasn't like Jack. Then nine-year-old Luke, who had been awakened by Jack's crying, was in our room too - tired, scared, and also crying. What should we do? I called our health provider and got a nurse advisor. After I described Jack's symptoms and distress, she said, "Take him to the emergency room at Children's Hospital." So we threw clothes on and rushed out to the garage. There was snow on the ground and ice on the steps as I carried my screaming and scared little boy. "Why didn't I put on boots with a grip?" I asked myself, as I carefully but hurriedly climbed down the treacherous steps with Jack in my arms.
We got in the car and headed into the deserted Washington, D.C. streets on our way to an emergency room we hoped and prayed was not too busy. Joy drove with Luke, who was asking all kinds of worried questions, while I tried to calm Jack (and myself) in the back seat by praying out loud that God would keep him safe. Luke joined in the prayers. We arrived at the ER, and I rushed in with Jack while Joy and Luke went to park the car.
It's the moment of panicked parenthood, rushing into the emergency room with your suffering and frightened child, almost frantically surveying the room for where you should go. "He's got severe abdominal pains; we need to see a doctor now!" I almost shout to the first person I encounter. I am in no mood to fill out papers and forms and talk about insurance coverage as I slap Jack's insurance card on the reception desk.
Fortunately, we are quickly accepted and admitted. They are all very attentive, compassionate, and professional. From the intake personnel, to the nurses, to the doctors (we were lucky enough to get the head of the ER who was on his shift just them), everybody was clearly competent and concerned. Joy and Luke rushed in soon after we did and we were all taken to a clean and quiet room where Jack was quickly and comprehensively examined. They spoke reassuringly as they looked at our little boy, telling us what they were going to do and what the possibilities were. Right away they got an IV to hydrate him and administer some pain-reducing medicine that was gentle for children. He got quieter and seemed to relax.
I saw a hospital system focus on a little boy with time, energy, concern, and (I assume) lots of financial resources. They did several X-rays of his stomach, chest, and lungs, and even did a comprehensive ultrasound to look for any sign of an inflamed appendix. The medicine was working its wonders and Jack was getting sleepy. But I had to wake him up, sit, and stand him up for the X-rays. My little trooper was a star as he stood still the best he could, even after such a traumatic morning, waiting for the technician to "take a picture of your tummy," as I told him. He looked up at me with such vulnerable and trusting eyes and said, "Even if my tummy can't smile." Afterward, I knew he was becoming himself again when he began to make several observations about the environment around him and philosophized, "When you're sad, and they turn you upside down, it turns into a smile." Yes, I said, amazed at how perspective does indeed change everything.
Joy was running Luke to school now, as Jack and I moved around the hospital for all the tests, in what we began to call his "traveling bed," which he thought was quite cool. Jack's big brother Luke was really worried and kept pressing his mom on whether Jack was okay and "wasn't going to die, right?" She assured him that his little brother was in very good hands now and would be alright. "Without Jack, life would be nothing," Luke tearfully lamented. "The first four years of my life were really boring!" he exclaimed to his moved and bemused mother.
She was back now in the hospital after dropping Luke off at school. Jack was resting comfortably back in our safe little room in the ER, and the doctor came in to tell us the results of all the testing, X-rays, and diagnosis. "Your son has pneumonia," he said, shocking us both. A nagging cough had settled into his left lung and was making him vomit while putting very painful pressure on his diaphragm and abdomen. But they were going to start administering the antibiotic right then and there, and, with a couple days of rest and quiet, he would start to get better. And there was no sign of appendicitis.
Several hours after our frightful awakening, we got Jack home and I got the antibiotic that was so critical to his healing at our health care provider's pharmacy. It was $10. And all the other care my son had received that morning was already paid for by our insurance. Jack was home, comfortable, and safe; while his mom and dad were greatly relieved. After Luke borrowed his fourth grade teacher's cell phone to call home to see how Jack was, he was finally relieved too.
But I began to think how different this all would have been if we were a family who didn't have health insurance and therefore hesitated or were afraid to go to the emergency room. Or, if we were "undocumented" and were terrified to take our child to a hospital. Or, if we were parents in Uganda living hundreds of miles from a doctor and just had to listen to our screaming child and hope that he wouldn't die.
My policy views on health care reform are very public. But this morning made it all very personal. Every parent, no matter who they are and where they live, can easily have the kind of trauma over the health of a child that we had. And every parent should have the medical care that we got. It's just wrong if they don't. What I realized most was how important it is for those who have that care to fight for those who don't. Other parents love their children just as fiercely as we love Jack, pray just as fervently for their healing, and have the right - as absolutely equally important children of God - to good and affordable health care. God loves all the children as much as God loves Jack, and its time to build a health care system in this country that respects that fundamental moral affirmation.
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Jesus reassures us that every effort to love ourselves and others more faithfully, however imperfectly we are able to do this, is a response to God’s call to love as he loved. It is a response to the two greatest commandments as they stand in relationship to one another
- Paula Ripple
Called to Be Friends
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Thursday, December 06, 2007
 As you all encounter pictures of "jolly, old St. Nick" this season, remember that St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was a real Christian hero. He spent his life working for freedom and justice for the poor and powerless. In particular, he is known for saving three women from being sold into prostitution and preventing the execution of three men who were wrongfully convicted.
From oca.org :
Saint Nicholas, the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia, is famed as a great saint pleasing unto God. ... From his childhood, Nicholas thrived on the study of divine scripture; by day he would not leave church, and by night he prayed and read books, making himself a worthy dwelling place for the Holy Spirit.
There was a certain formerly rich inhabitant of Patara, whom St Nicholas saved from great sin. The man had three grown daughters, and in desperation he planned to sell their bodies so they would have money for food. The saint, learning of the man's poverty and of his wicked intention, secretly visited him one night and threw a sack of gold through the window. With the money the man arranged an honorable marriage for his daughter. St Nicholas also provided gold for the other daughters, thereby saving the family from falling into spiritual destruction. In bestowing charity, St Nicholas always strove to do this secretly and to conceal his good deeds.
During his life, the saint worked many miracles. One of the greatest was the deliverance from death of three men unjustly condemned by the governor, who had been bribed. The saint boldly went up to the executioner and took his sword, already suspended over the heads of the condemned. The governor, denounced by St Nicholas for his wrong doing, repented and begged for forgiveness.
Abayea Pelt is the office manager and receptionist for Sojourners, and an active member of St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
 In what may be the defining moment of his campaign, Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts and a Mormon, addressed the issue of faith and its bearing on his pursuit of the presidency. Pundits inevitably compared Romney's speech in College Station, Texas, with the speech that John F. Kennedy gave just down the road at the Rice Hotel, Houston, on September 12, 1960.
The parallels are unmistakable. Both men felt compelled to address what was openly discussed as the "religious issue" in 1960. Both men were reared in a tradition different from Protestantism, which claims the allegiance of at least a plurality (if not a majority) of Americans.
But the parallels end there. Unlike Mormonism, Roman Catholicism was well known to most Americans in 1960, although many Protestants had a jaundiced view of the Roman Catholic Church. Many Americans, by contrast, know little about Mormonism, officially named the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Many Americans see Mormons as strange and secretive; their temples, for instance, are closed to "gentiles" (non-Mormons). The Mormon notion of God as both male and female, baptism for the dead, and even the practice of wearing Mormon underwear (thought by many to have protective powers) strike many as unorthodox, if not downright bizarre.
For evangelicals, some tenets of Mormonism are particularly troubling. Mormons accept the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and the New Testament as divinely inspired, but they believe that the Book of Mormon, discovered by Joseph Smith in Palmyra, New York, in 1827, is similarly inspired. And Mormons believe that the president of the Latter-day Saints is the conduit for continuing inspiration. Evangelicals, on the other hand, view the Bible (Old and New Testaments), as the "word of God" and their sole religious authority. For another religious group to add to the canon of scripture strikes most evangelicals as utter blasphemy.
These suspicions do not augur well for Romney. Politically conservative evangelical voters are a core constituency for the Republican Party. In order to win the Republican nomination, Romney needs the support of conservative evangelicals, especially in Iowa.
Throughout the early months of the campaign, Romney sought to downplay his faith, protesting that he was not a spokesman for Mormonism. But many voters, evangelicals especially, have not been mollified – which led him to the dais of the George Bush Library in Texas this morning to deliver his "JFK speech."
Two of the most compelling arguments central to Kennedy's speech in 1960, however, are not available to Romney. Kennedy unequivocally affirmed his "absolute" support for the separation of church and state, and he also foreswore government support for religious schools. Romney cannot echo those positions. Leaders in the Religious Right preach that the First Amendment separation of church and state is a "myth," and seek taxpayer support for church-related schools.
So in the end, Romney was reduced to bromides about religious liberty and "family values." (Mormons are good at "family values.")
Ironically, Romney missed the opportunity to make his best case for a Mormon to be president. Mormons believe that America's charter documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, are actually divinely inspired. After seven years of an administration that views the Constitution as a nuisance, many Americans, I suspect, would welcome a president who sought to defend the integrity of the Constitution rather than subvert it.
 Randall Balmer, an Episcopal priest, is professor of American religious history at Barnard College, Columbia University, and a visiting professor at Yale Divinity School. His most recent book, God in the White House: A History: How Faith Shaped the Presidency from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush, will be released by HarperOne in January.
Tuesday evening, Virginia Lohmann Bauman was ordained to the ministry at First Baptist Church in Granville, Ohio. Gini (as we know her) is Sojourners' Ohio Field Organizer. In her ordination paper for the American Baptist Churches, Gini wrote:
My faith journey began in my childhood and continues to evolve in wonderful and challenging ways. I am a preacher's kid, a wife, a mother, a lawyer, a mediator, a minister, an ecumenical bridge-builder, and a child of God who feels called to preach the good news of Jesus Christ and to serve God and the church through prophetic ministry and advocacy.
I had the privilege of participating in the service, along with several other staff members. It was truly a memorable occasion, full of the special joy I always feel when women are ordained to ministry, after long being excluded from church leadership. I was especially struck by the reflection by Dr. George Williamson, Gini's former pastor and a key mentor in her life and a long-time friend of Sojourners. George spoke about Jeremiah, Gini's favorite prophet, and his call to prophetic ministry. With his permission, I share it with you.
ON BUYING A FIELD IN ANATHOTH
A mentor's reflection upon the ordination of Gini Lohmann Bauman
by George Williamson, Jr.
Gini said for me to speak to prophetic ministry with reference to Jeremiah. Okay. Jeremiah clearly says prophetic ministry's a damn fool thing to do. It's certainly not something you choose to do. You get chosen - like being entered against your will in the divine lottery, and losing. In which case, he would have you beg to get out of it, and failing that, whine and complain to God.
Jeremiah, you know, was not a happy man, because the depth of human wretchedness revealed itself to him. He was not a married man, because who would marry him? He was not a pretty man, or pleasant to know. But he had a huge voice, like a volcano, stored in soul barrels between eruptions. His images got under peoples' minds and gnawed on them. He was a prophet. Everybody knew he was a prophet, and mostly left him alone.
Jeremiah never did any good. His first prophecy was of invasion by a mysterious "foe from the north," which never happened. He joined King Josiah's religious reformation, whose politically appointed revolutionaries didn't need him. Anyway, he decided it was a cover for rampant injustice, and as it became law, he came out against it. He got ordained, but was defrocked and disfellowshipped for preaching unbearable sermons. So he preached from the temple steps, and was jailed.
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 I became aware of Rev. Billy last year through my friend Jahneen Otis, who serves as the musical director of St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery. Some of her musicians and singers perform in the Stop Shopping Choir and the Ain't Buying It Band, so she got me a ticket to see him perform. Also, I read an insightful history and analysis of Rev. Billy's ministry, courtesy of Walter Bruggemann's article, "What Would Jesus Buy?," in the November 2007 issue of Sojourners.
My interest piqued in this unique brand of street theater activism, I decided to check out the movie What Would Jesus Buy? Throughout this new documentary (produced by Morgan Spurlock of Supersize Me), Rev. Billy and his Stop Shopping choir assume the persona of street preachers as they rally against the gospel of consumerism. According to Rev. Billy (real name Bill Talen), "If we can change Christmas, then we can change the rest of the year."
During his appearance in this flick, Jim Wallis offers the astute reflection that "The shopping mall is a symbol of all that's wrong with America." The film illustrates this by documenting the groups' two month long tour of America's shopping malls. Ironically, their eco-friendly tour bus powered by veggie oil gets rear ended by an 18-wheeler rushing to deliver its goods. While the director and a few others were sent to the ICU for a while, these scrappy souls were able to charter a bus, finish the tour, and complete the documentary.
This film's highlights include the righteous reverend driving the money changers out of the Mall of America before he is chased away by mall security, performing a funeral for small town America at Wal-Mart's headquarters, and getting arrested on Christmas Day at the Promised Land (aka Disneyland).
The day after I watched this flick, I had the blessed opportunity to catch Rev. Billy live at the Highline Ballroom in New York City. He delivered a power packed message that now is not the time to be a gradualist. He said we must take immediate steps to defeat the devil of consumerism that has taken over this country. His call for radical transformation reminded me of the message espoused by Brian McLaren in his new book Everything Must Change.
After Billy's sermon, I sauntered over to All Angels Church, where my good buddy Shane Claiborne was being hosted by New York Faith & Justice. I had reported on their launch and was delighted that this grassroots group started by four New Yorkers who met at the Sojourners/Call to Renewal Pentecost 2006 Conference was becoming a positive force for social change. As always, Shane posed a simple yet insightful question: "Why do we celebrate the birthday of a refugee born in a manger by buying stuff?"
For those looking for creative ways to get back to the true spirit of Christmas, check out The Alternative for Simple Living's advent booklet, Whose Birthday is it Anyway? And if you want to make a meaningful gift that has a direct connection to those living in the Holy Land, The International Center of Bethlehem offers unique crafts that are created by college students looking to pay for their education. Two offerings that caught my eye were hand-crafted silver olive leaf jewelry and glass art pieces made out of fragments of broken bottles thrown away or glass destroyed during the Israeli invasion of Bethlehem. Also, though Habitat for Humanity Jordan, donors can give a gift that will benefit people living in poverty conditions in both rural and urban neighborhoods across Jordan. Donations range from $5,650 for a 590-square-foot house to $6.00 for a bag of cement. For more information, email info@habitatjordan.org.
While I was penning this piece, I received a press release announcing that the Rev. Sam Morris, senior pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Columbus, Mississippi, and adjunct professor at the Jerusalem Institute for Biblical Exploration (J.I.B.E.), is spearheading an all-volunteer team of U.S., Israeli, and Palestinian musicians for a four-city Holy Land Christmas Concert Tour that will culminate in the largest Christmas Eve concert in Bethlehem's Manger Square since 1999.
These snippets from the Holy Land brought me back to Rev. Billy's preaching at the Highline Ballroom when he asked the crowd, "What if we gave the gift of Christmas itself? After all, isn't Christmas about celebrating the birth of a child we hope would grow up to teach up peace?" Amen, brother.
Becky Garrison's books include The New Atheist Crusaders and their Unholy Grail: Their Misguided Quest to Destroy Your Faith (Thomas Nelson, January 2008), Red and Blue God, Black and Blue Church, and Rising from the Ashes: Rethinking Church.
Could there be anything more blessed than to imitate on earth the ring-dance of the angels and at dawn to raise our voices in prayer and by hymns and songs to glorify the rising Creator?
- St. Basil
Bishop of Caesarea (4th Century)
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 Here's the good news: The Golden Compass does not promote atheism. It isn't going to steal your children. It does not signal the end of hope for religion in the West. That's the good news. Here's the bad news: it promotes the same, shallow "don't touch my stuff or I'll kill you" message that appears in so much of popular culture. But more than this, in spite of delightful visual imagery, and a couple of performances in which it's clear the actors are having fun (an icy Nicole Kidman, and the great English theatrical knight Derek Jacobi to name two), it's simply a boring film.
At its centre there is at least an attempt at exploring interesting territory – we are in a parallel universe in which everyone is accompanied by a 'daemon' – an animal representation of their personality, and a comfort in times of trouble. Meanwhile, a shadowy authoritarian body, "the Magisterium", is abducting children and performing daemon amputations. Too much daemon, too much free will, too little for the Magisterium to do.
The religious resonances are obvious, but the film doesn't make any explicit commentary on Christianity. Rather, its enemy is the misuse of power to force people to think or act against the exercise of freedom. The image of severing our connection to that which keeps us in a state of wonder is a powerful one; and The Golden Compass does a good job of reminding us just why children can sometimes understand things that confound adults.
But, as is typically the case with such large canvas "family films," the antidote proposed is nothing more than violence on a massive scale. I have not read the acclaimed Philip Pullman books on which this film – the first in a trilogy – is based, so I don't know where the story leads, or if the huge fight at the crescendo of the movie is proportionate to the text. But while the film of The Golden Compass is angry about religious and cultural imperialism, its response is strangely Nietzschean – the reassertion of individualism and the use of physical brute force appear to be the only answer it can think of.
At the same time, it's so muddled as a film - having clearly been made by a studio breathing down the talented director Chris Weitz's neck, with scenes ended before they're finished, and a script that doesn't seem to know where it's going - that it maybe shouldn't be taken anywhere near as seriously as some angry activists think.
It's surreal watching a film like this, for you feel like you're being told something over and over again that you already know: religious power can be a dangerous mix, and so needs to be handled with care and be accountable to the community. This film wants to think that religion and power can never be used for good; and yet, in its unthinking embrace of survival of the fittest/might as right philosophy, it may actually end up on the same side as the neocons and religious imperialists it seeks to condemn.
Gareth Higgins is a Christian writer and activist in Belfast, Northern Ireland. For the past decade he was the founder/director of the zero28 project, an initiative addressing questions of peace, justice, and culture. He is the author of the insightful How Movies Helped Save My Soul and blogs at www.godisnotelsewhere.blogspot.com
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Wednesday, December 05, 2007
 After more than six years of field exercises in some of the most grueling weather our country offers, I am rarely affected by even the most chilling winter rains. Months of accumulated time in the forests of North Carolina, the deserts of California, and the wetlands of Louisiana - training for war has built up in me a bit of immunity to succumbing to the shivers. However, there is one thing that pierces my calloused exterior with ease.
Tremors begin in my chest—tiny convulsions shortening my breath. They quickly spread to my upper back and neck before spreading throughout my body. Even now as I write, my fingers pause over many keys, timing the moment they may strike with relative certainty that I will not have to delete keystrokes. My breath becomes shallow and I feel warmth leave my hands and feet.
In a tab on my browser, a Washington Post article lies hidden behind my word processing program. It is a story that hits horrifically close to home. It speaks of Army Lieutenant Elizabeth Whiteside, facing court-martial—being prosecuted for attempted suicide—while rehabilitating in the Psychiatric Ward of Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The same officer had served in the prison that sent Saddam to be hanged, in the Iraqi government's illusion of redemptive violence.
Days ago, another article, from AlterNet, described a recent CBS investigation that found an alarming trend in those who have served our country. I would never have believed the finding had it not been for the devastating news Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) received last Tuesday. One of our active members had taken their own life. Their spouse, another IVAW member who suffers from PTSD, had found the body the night prior.
In 2005, an average of 17 vets committed suicide every day. No, that is not a typo: 17 every day. More alarming is the response within the Armed Forces - which is disturbingly outlined in the case of 1st Lt. Whiteside, wherein a clinical diagnosis is being utterly ignored in the interest of saving face. At the same time, many of our vets' disability claims are being verifiably reduced or denied. This treatment sends one strikingly clear message to those who have served and sacrificed: you are not worth the effort. Is it any wonder why vets of all generations are more prone to homelessness and suicide than any other demographic?
The church has historically labeled suicide an unforgivable sin, as the opportunity for repentance destroys itself with the victim's final breath. However, before labeling suicide as "the coward's way out," I think we need to look at our own corporate complicity in these deaths. In our modern era, we have not learned from the ancient orthodoxy that taught warriors to remove themselves from the community for a period of reflection and healing before reentering.
Today, a soldier can move from Kirkuk to New York in a matter of hours. What does that do to their grasp of reality? When they cry out for our holistic (not superficial) support, we fumble about, feeding them gross misinterpretations of scripture such as the Just War Theory, hoping to ease their consciences with hollow justifications. When they find no solace in that, we walk away confused about why we could not "fix their problem," casting shame upon those who can find no affirmation.
I don't think a transcendently benevolent God is that insensitive. I think God feels their pain long before anyone on earth accepts the responsibility to share in Christ's saving work, which begins even before the seed of self-hatred is sown. Surely we are not so blinded by our own plank that we fail to see that if we will not share their pain, we shall share their guilt. A suicide is anything but a personal transgression; it reflects an outright failure of community. Our heart should ache for all those who have been suffocated of hope, beaten to the point of desperation by a world that offers no source of redemptive healing for the beaten and broken.
I wonder if we get so defensive because there is no room for restitution, no scapegoat upon which to place blame. We hastily label it a personal sin, as we are made impotent by the inability to cast judgment. We forget that indeed a murder has taken place, but that the stones lay in our own two hands. It is not one stone that kills a person, but many; not one sin that destroys a life, but an accumulation. The truth leaves us naked, and fig leaves held tenuously together by half-truths and moral manipulations are all that conceal us from reality.
My fingers still quiver and the quakes in my chest have not subsided. My joints ache with grief and my hands still have no warmth in them. I am sick with disgust and contempt for the systems we have in place and their utter failure in our national time of need. This frustration is sin crouching at my door, threatening to overcome me, but I can be its master. I am not incapable of overcoming anger with compassion, defeating hubris with humility. May God have mercy on me. May I rest in peace. May God enable me to be the change I wish to see, to reach those close to death's door and be Christ's heart and hands to the least among us.
May God direct us all in being the prophetic witness to our government, to help us create means of healing for those who sacrifice their mental and physical health. May the author and protector of life give us hearts of flesh and rebuke us every time we marginalize and dehumanize our brothers and sisters by casting the stones of disregard, indifference, and neglect.
 Logan Laituri is a six-year Army veteran with combatant service in Iraq during OIF II and experience with Christian Peacemaker Teams in Israel and the West Bank. He is an active member of Iraq Veterans Against the War and currently resides in Camden, New Jersey, in an intentional Christian community called Camden House, where he continues to seek ways to wage peace wherever he goes. He blogs at courageouscoward.blogspot.com.
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We still need prophets to summon us back to the spiritual roots of wholeness and peace. We still need broadcasters of God’s word and magnifiers of God’s truth, so that we will understand and turn and be healed.
Kenneth L. Waters, Sr.
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
After months of increasing talk of military strikes against Iran to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons, the Bush administration has suddenly received a dose of reality. In what news reports called A Blow to Bush's Tehran Policy and An Assessment Jars a Foreign Policy Debate About Iran, a new "National Intelligence Estimate," representing the consensus view of 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, used its strongest language – "We judge with high confidence" - to say
We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program;
The NIE followed with its language for a lesser certainty - "We assess with moderate-to-high confidence" - to add
we also assess with moderate-to-high confidence that Tehran at a minimum is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons.
And why this change?
We judge with high confidence that the halt, and Tehran's announcement of its decision to suspend its declared uranium enrichment program and sign an Additional Protocol to its Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Safeguards Agreement, was directed primarily in response to increasing international scrutiny and pressure resulting from exposure of Iran's previously undeclared nuclear work. … Our assessment that Iran halted the program in 2003 primarily in response to international pressure indicates Tehran's decisions are guided by a cost-benefit approach rather than a rush to a weapon irrespective of the political, economic, and military costs. This, in turn, suggests that some combination of threats of intensified international scrutiny and pressures, along with opportunities for Iran to achieve its security, prestige, and goals for regional influence in other ways, might—if perceived by Iran's leaders as credible—prompt Tehran to extend the current halt to its nuclear weapons program.
As our Words Not War statement said a year ago:
In response to the real threat of Iran's nuclear ambitions, strategic combinations of pressures and incentives must be seriously and persistently tried, beginning with direct negotiations. … short of full scale war and complete occupation of Iran, military actions will not remove Iran's potential nuclear threat; indeed, it would likely intensify Iran's goal of acquiring nuclear weapons.
Yes, Iran probably is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons (like many other countries), but the way to prevent them is continued diplomacy that offers incentives to cooperate further with international inspections, not reckless talk of military attacks.
 As a child I found no joy in an Advent calendar; all those little flaps and doors and bite-size pieces of chocolate signified nothing more than the fact that Christmas was still a really, really long time away. Especially as I got down to the last few doors, just a few days before the big event, time seemed to take on a pace as slow as molasses sucked through a straw. Admittedly, the coming of the Christ child was not what had me wound so tight. It was the portly fellow in the red suit who delivered untold delights on my living room floor that made the Advent season so terribly long. While the object of my desire may have been misdirected, the spirit of Advent was palpable. I was waiting for something big and it was taking a very, very long time to arrive.
How odd that the older we get, the faster Advent seems to fly by. Barely has the Thanksgiving turkey been devoured before we find that we're out of time to prepare for Christmas. There have been several years when I've realized that Christmas was a week away and I'd not yet put up a tree or even hung a wreath on the door. The units of time have not changed over the years; a minute is still 60 seconds, a day is still 24 hours. How is it, then, that Advent speeds past us when once it crawled along?
Perhaps it is because as adults when we want something we can usually find a way to get it without waiting very long at all. When we do have to wait longer than expected – someone decides to write a check for their groceries or the line at the coffee shop is out the door – we get antsy, even angry for the delay.
This past year my husband and I embarked on an adventure in anti-consumerism. To date, we've gone 11 months and three days without purchasing anything new (except for things like toilet paper and shampoo), and through it all I've learned an old but timeless lesson: good things come to those who wait. Unable to run out the store whenever the whim for something new crosses my mind, I've learned to work hard for the things I really want and let the desire for useless stuff just fade away.
Advent should be a time for slowing down not speeding up. On Christmas Day we celebrate a world transformed by the birth of a small child. What if we lived as if the world might be transformed once again? Our faith tells us that how we keep ourselves busy ourselves during the wait is important. We are not called to lives of idle desperation but active hope. Would Advent creep up on us if we truly believed that the world might be so transformed again by something as unassuming as a child born in a manger? How would you prepare your household, your family, and your neighborhood for a gift so radical and promising?
This year I'll try to wait (the active hopeful kind of waiting) as if I believe that my most impossible dreams - a world where no child goes hungry, no sick are left to die, no bombs explode - could be made real. The anticipation will certainly rival anything from my childhood. I'm waiting for something big this year but I've found that God's gifts always surprise.
 Amy Ard is a former national field organizer for Sojourners, and her related commentary, "A Simple Christmas," appears in the December issue of Sojourners.
Beautiful is the moment in which we understand that we are no more than an instrument of God; we live only as long as God wants us to live; we can only do as much as God makes us able to do; we are only as intelligent as God would have us be.
- Archbishop Oscar Romero
From his last homily, March 23, 1980
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Then Peter began to speak to them: "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ--he is Lord of all."
- Acts 10:34-36
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Monday, December 03, 2007
The new 2007-2008 UN Human Development report is focused on "Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world." According to news stories, the report clearly links overcoming climate change with global poverty:
"The poorest countries and most vulnerable citizens will suffer the earliest and most damaging setbacks, even though they have contributed least to the problem," the report says.
…
As the world's richest countries bear the greatest responsibility, the UN Development Programme called on them to bear the largest burden in cutting emissions and in providing financial aid to the poor.
And, as is true with so many of the big issues facing us,
"The world lacks neither the financial resources nor the technological capabilities to act," the UN report said. "What is missing is a sense of urgency, human solidarity, and collective interest."
 Suddenly it seems there's a full-scale war going on in our neighborhood, and we and our neighbors here are in a new kind of danger.
On their way back to college after helping out at our weekly dinner party, our friends Jenny and Alyssa stopped at an intersection and noticed a group of guys milling around in the early evening, less than a block from our church. A moment later, guns started firing on both sides of them, and, before they could pull away, four bullets entered their car. They weren't hurt, but they could have been killed.
The next night, a few blocks away, four men carrying automatic weapons walked by our friend Helen as she was sitting on her front steps watching her grandchildren play. As she hustled the kids inside, those men shot up her block.
Two days later, back on our church's corner, an older kid I know named Wu took a bullet in the foot just after midnight. When I asked him about it yesterday he brushed me off, but I know he's scared, and well he should be. You see, unlike our college girls or Miss Helen, Wu knows exactly what's going on around here. He's part of it.
The bottom line is that earlier this year a local guy named Turtle was murdered in a bar. There were plenty of witnesses, but none of them would testify against the killer. Evidently, as friends of the victim, they wanted him to be released so they could take care of him in their own way. Of course, the killer has friends too. However, nobody on either side seems to be able to shoot straight—or is willing to hold their fire until after the rest of us are safely tucked in.
Marty and I are genuinely afraid - for our neighbors, for the folks in our little community, and especially for our precious Miranda and Roman. And, of course, we are doing all we can to keep them safe in the midst of this trouble.
Then again, we are not doing the one thing that would keep them safest of all right now: We are not putting them out of harm's way. We are not moving. On the contrary, every day we are quite intentionally rooting ourselves more deeply in this neighborhood, in spite of our frequent inclinations to cut and run.
Miss Helen has no choice in the matter. She must live here, or someplace like here. Likewise with Wu (though he could at least choose to be part of the solution from now on, instead of part of the problem). But Marty and I, Ric and Karen, Donna and Jeff - we all could go if we chose to, which is probably the most important thing that sets us apart in this neighborhood, for better and for worse. We're educated and connected in ways that mean we can never really be poor, no matter how little we may make or live on. Poverty, after all, is not so much the absence of money as it is the absence of choices.
Right now, though, it is those choices that keep Marty and I up at night, even more than the gunfire. We wonder what it means to say we love our neighbors if we aren't willing to stay with them here. We wonder what it means to say we love our children if we aren't willing to take them away. And we wonder what it means to say we love God if we still can't always tell the difference between God's will and our own desires and insecurities.
Bart Campolo is a veteran urban minister and activist who speaks, writes, and blogs www.bartcampolo.com about grace, faith, loving relationships and social justice. Bart is the leader of The Walnut Hills Fellowship www.thewalnuthillsfellowship.org in inner-city Cincinnati. He is also founder of Mission Year www.missionyear.org, which recruits committed young adults to live and work among the poor in inner-city neighborhoods across the USA, and executive director of EAPE, which develops and supports innovative, cost-effective mission projects around the world.
 In college, I took a cultural exchange trip (read: vacation) to Rome over spring break. Just around the corner from St. Peter's Square, I bought my father, a minister, a crucifix for his office.
Earlier this week, I saw that same souvenir in a report from The National Labor Committee on crucifixes made in Chinese sweatshops.
The report, titled "Today Workers Bear the Cross", documents the oppressive treatment of the workers in the Junxingye factory in Dongguan, China, who make crucifixes and other religious items to be sold to the faithful in the West.
[The] mostly young women—several just 15 and 16 years old—[are] forced to work routine 14 to 15 ½-hour shifts, from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 or 11:30 p.m., seven days a week … and even monthly all-night 22 ½ to 25-hour shifts before shipments must leave for the U.S. …Workers are paid just 26 and a half cents an hour, which is half of China's legal minimum wage (already set at a below-subsistence level) of 55 cents an hour. After fees deducted for room and board, the workers take-home wage can drop to just nine cents an hour … Workers fear that they may be handling toxic chemicals, but they are not told the names of the chemicals and paints, let alone their potential health hazards.
The products are then sold for upwards of $20 in the U.S., in churches like New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral and chains like Family Christian Stores. If God despises praise songs and offerings presented in the absence of justice, as the Hebrew prophets tell us, then crucifixes and plastic Bible covers made on the cheap at the expense of workers must really make God mad.
The image of women toiling away in sweatshops while handling an icon of the suffering body of Christ is quite striking. It brings to my mind a couple of questions. What might it mean for North American and European Christians to bear the cross—that is, to willingly suffer for the sake of justice—rather than participate in the unjust elements of our global trade system? Is it even possible to practice authentic discipleship within the global economy we're all swept up in? How can we, in even the smallest ways, seek to rid our lives of exploitation and be in solidarity with those who are suffering?
I ask these questions not because I have the answers. (Much of this post was written on a laptop built in, you guessed it, China.) I think I have a small picture, though, of what it might look like:
We'd probably buy more local and union made products, even if they cost more. We'd become pretty comfortable with hand-me-downs, and even looking kind of frumpy sometimes. We'd realize we need less than we thought we did, and go without some things previously thought essential. We'd share a lot more with our neighbors. And we'd demand that unjust structures change. Most of all, we'd need a community—to keep us accountable to countercultural discipleship, to forgive us for the impossibility of living lives free of exploitation, and to remind us it is in God and not the global market that we live, move, and have our being.
I pray that the church would be that sort of community and come together in resistance to our present global economy. Then we could begin to free ourselves (and others, like the women in the Junxingye factory) from its captivity.
Tim Kumfer serves as an assistant at The Church of the Saviour in Washington, D.C., and is a former Sojourners intern. He writes occasionally at timkumfer.blogspot.com.
"Friends, why are you doing this? We are mortals just like you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In past generations he allowed all the nations to follow their own ways; yet he has not left himself without a witness in doing good--giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, and filling you with food and your hearts with joy."
- Acts 14:15-17
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