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CONGOblog A weblog of The Congregational Church of Manhasset (UCC) Archives--November 2005
When we say, "NEVER AGAIN" in regards to the Holocaust or any other genocide, we are lying. We are lying, because we are currently allowing a genocide to occur today in Darfur, Sudan and doing nothing to stop it. (see pictures and video about the genocide) Nicholas Kristof's column in yesterday's NY Times is yet another plea by this courageous writer for us as a nation to do something about the systematic murder and mass rape of the people of Darfur by the Sudanese government. Kristof points out that we are not helpless and that there are things that we can do as a nation that will not involve a great military and economic effort: 1. Pay for the African Union Security Force--a force of peacekeepers from African nations stands ready to intervene if they can have the financial assistance to do it. The cost? $50 million--that's spare change in Washington!!! Representative Jim Kolbe of Arizona, with help from the White House, killed this funding and Congress let it happen. This is another example of our government turning its back on the people most in need of help. 2. Expand the security force beyond the African Union to include UN peacekeepers and get other wealthy countries (Canada, Germany, Japan or NATO) to foot the bill. 3. Impose a no-fly zone. The Sudanese government uses planes and helicopters to carry out the genocide. Their meager air force could be destroyed easily if they continue this practice. 4. The House should pass the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act--an act that has languished in Congress that would impose sanctions and pressure Sudan to stop the killing. The Senate already passed the bill. 5. Bush should use the bully pulpit.--Bush has made only a brief and insignificant mention of Darfur during the last year. In his second inaugural address, "All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors." Nice words--some action to back them up in the case of Sudan would also be nice. 6. Negotiate with tribal sheiks.--Bush and Kofi Annan should appoint a special envoy. A Colin Powell or James Baker could deal with the real authorities on the ground--the sheiks, rather than as the US government has been doing which is dealing with the Sudanese government and its cronies who have no intention of stopping. 7. Ordinary people need to get involved.--Write your Congressmen. As Kristof has repeatedly noted, "Before he died, Senator Paul Simon said that if only 100 people in each Congressional district had demanded a stop to the Rwandan genocide, that effoort would have generated a determination to stop it. But Americans didn't write such letters to members of Congress then, and they're not writing them now." Feel like doing something about Darfur? Peace, Chase
A
person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, --Dave Barry "Remember the little people" or so the saying goes. Yet, Jesus goes beyond this idea that "big" or important or powerful people should remember the "little" or unimportant or powerless people. Indeed, Paul wrote about the meaning of Christmas as: "[Christ] emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death--even death on a cross." (Philippians 2:7-8 NRSV) Jesus taught that his followers must be like him and reverse the dominant power structures of the world:
"Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and
whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For
the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his
life a ransom for many." The 25th chapter of Matthew takes this view even further. There Jesus says that when we care for the "least of these"--the hungry, thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the prisoner--it is the same as doing it for him. On the other hand, when we ignore the needs of these people, we have failed to help Jesus. Jesus declares that the people in our society that are considered "the least" should be treated as the most important and most valued. Currently, "the least" of our society are being abandoned and ignored in a terrible way. I agree with Jim Wallis who declares that BUDGETS ARE MORAL DOCUMENTS. The current budget proposals going through Congress reveal a lot about the morality and the immorality of our society. Here are a few of the most recent budget cuts that are making their way through Congress: On November 18, by a vote of 217 to 215, the House approved the following budget cuts;
These budget cuts come at a time when Congress has approved some of the largest pork-barrel projects in history that reward large campaign donors and supporters. The recent Transportation Bill is a prime example of money that could have been cut to continue these programs. As Christians, we are called to care for "the least" and that includes through our tax dollars, our votes and our public voice. Peace, Chase
When I read Jesus' teachings as presented in the Gospels, I end up feeling like the character Neo in the film The Matrix. Neo discovers that the world he knows isn't reality at all but an artificial and virtual world created to keep him enslaved--happy, content and without questions. When I hear what rabbit the news media is chasing--when I see what inane celebrity's romance is consuming national attention--when I see what product people are lining up to buy--when I see religion totally subsumed by politics--I feel like we're all being distracted from the real questions we should be asking. When I picked up the latest issue of The Christian Century and read an article by theologian and Hebrew Bible scholar, Walter Brueggemann, I felt a little bit like Morpheus was speaking to me, lifting the veil and pointing out the matrix all around me. Brueggemann writes about SCRIPTS--noting that we all have one, either explicit or implicit, that provide us with a sense of purpose and security. Psychotherapy often involves acknowledging the scripts we live by and writing a new one. Whether our script is "one of the great meta-narratives created by Karl Marx or Adam Smith or...'My dad always said...'" we operate with a script. Communities, societies as well as people, operate according to a script. Then Brueggemann drops the bomb and presents what he believes is the script for our society:
The script of our culture, Brueggemann writes, is guaranteed to fail--"guaranteed to produce new depths of insecurity and new waves of unhappiness." In order to survive, the script needs us to remain insecure, anxious and discontent, so that we will work to buy more, dominate more, control more--all in order to find a peace that the script is unable to deliver in the first place. He writes that "the dominant script of therapeutic technological consumerist militarism is not godless or atheistic. Rather, it offers us a god who has no power to save." As believers, we claim an alternative script that offers fulfillment and life rather than discontent and death. This alternative script is of a God that calls us to look beyond ourselves and our own security to the well-being of others and to the one who created us. Yet, even in the church--maybe especially in the church, we seem to offer no real alternative to the dominant script of our world. In the closing credits to The Matrix a song by the rock band Rage Against the Machine plays. It's called "Wake Up", and was chosen I assume to refer to the vast humanity of the film stuck in the Matrix unaware of its slavery that needs to awaken to reality. Christ calls us to wake up as well to the ethos of our world that we both knowingly and unknowingly subscribe to. Christ challenges our assumptions and calls us to a better life--indeed, to true life. In the scripture passage that Jimmy preached on this past Sunday, Christ says explicitly for us to be awake: Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.’ Mark 13:33-37 In case all this script stuff seems a little too vague and not concrete enough for you and you just don't quite get the idea that we're all more than a bit blind to our own motivations, I offer you a commentary by humorist/actor/writer/producer Brian Unger about the beginning of the holiday shopping season. It helps to raise the question of what exactly are we all scurrying around about? He writes:
Peace, Chase
Who knew that so many people watched David Letterman? I guess by Friday night on Thanksgiving weekend people were looking for some entertainment. Because of Jimmy's appearance on Letterman Friday night, he's received e-mail from long lost college and high school friends, distant relatives and complete strangers. There are a few e-mails from the last group that I think are worth sharing. A UCC minister from Wisconsin wrote: Dear Rev.
Only, Another UCC minister from Illinois wrote:
As a UCC youth minister and music minister watching the David
Letterman show, we were excited to see a minister that seemed so
down to earth and "cool", so we looked you up on line. We were not
surprised to see that you were also UCC.
Thanks for making pastors look good!!!
A woman from Oklahoma wrote: Saw you on Letterman...you were a nice representation of a minister. Bless you, From these e-mails, I think you can determine that 1. UCC ministers have an intuitive ability to recognize each other (I'm not sure if I have this talent.) and 2. Jimmy seemed to make a good impression as a minister during his national TV debut. It may be too much to deduce from these e-mails, but it seems to support my own perception that there are few examples of clergy in the national media other than the ones who are judgmental, money-grubbing, pedophiles or downright nutty. We can only hope that folks around the country have a different and healthier experience of clergy on Sunday mornings . Peace, Chase
The CONGOblog was off for Thanksgiving but is now up and running again. We're kicking things off by giving thanks for one of those crazy and wonderful "only in New York" moments. This past Friday night on The Late Show with David Letterman, our own minister Jimmy Only made an appearance. He scored some tickets and he and Colleen attended the show. Jimmy was interviewed beforehand and found himself as a contestant on the "Know Your Current Events" quiz game--one of Letterman's regular gags. Jimmy did well--missing the answers for both questions as every contestant invariably does. Dave asked Jimmy how things were going at the church and if he had difficulty coming up with sermon topics. Dave even urged one of his staff people to come visit our church. "Vicky," you're welcome at our church any time! I haven't found the video on the web yet, but you can go to the Letterman site and see an abbreviated transcript of the show where it mentions Jimmy's name along with the jokes. This is just the beginning of our new church publicity campaign. Look for Jimmy's future appearances on Live with Regis and Kelly and Dr. Phil. Peace, Chase
I find it interesting that the meanest life, I finally got around to listening to an On Point interview with Nicholas Kristof from the NY Times. Yes, he's on the Times editorial page and yes, this is an interview on an NPR show--but I hope all the Wall Street Journal editorial page-loving, Fox News-watching CONGOblog readers will overlook my sources. I consider Kristof one of the heroes of today, because he's been really the only voice of significance raising the issues of the Darfur genocide, the sex trade in Southeast Asia, the treatment of women in Pakistan, etc. He has not only criticized the Right but also taken on the Left when it comes to these issues. My question is where is the American church when it comes to these issues? As people who claim to follow Jesus' command to love our neighbors as ourselves, we give so little thought to our neighbors around the world (except by those churches whose focus is upon proselytizing around the world and then the emphasis is upon conversion rather than human rights). Why isn't the American church out front on the issues of AIDS in Africa, genocide, etc.? When the church does speak up it is often the advocacy groups of the more liberal denominations (like our own), who receive little notice in the media and seem to have little influence. Until people in the pews begin to care about these issues, the American church remains silent while our "neighbors" die. In the meantime, I'm glad that at least Kristof is out there writing his columns. Peace, Chase
Okay CONGOblog readers, I've been remiss in posting over the last week, but there's been plenty of news out there that I feel people of faith should be concerned about. Here's some of it: Jesus said, "Whenever you give less than 1% to the poor, you've done it unto me..." In the Nov. 4 NY Times, there was a good editorial about Congress' cuts to the Bush Administration's requests to increase American funds used to combat extreme poverty around the globe. Currently, the United States gives only .18% of its G.N.P. (NOTE THE LOCATION OF THE DECIMAL POINT!!!) to poorer countries. To his credit, Bush has supported the agreements hashed out by the world's richest countries to raise their aid to .7% of G.N.P. (again that's less than 1% but a heck of a lot more than current levels of giving). This particular type of giving is not military aid or even traditional economic aid, but money used to help the extremely poor--as in people that could die this very day due to lack of food and clean water. Bush deserves a pat on the back for his efforts to raise this aid, but it is time to see if he can provide more than words. Here's what the editors of the Times said:
We've Got to Get Ourselves Back to the Garden In last Monday's NY Times, there is an interesting article about a new push by evangelicals for Congress to take new steps to eliminate carbon dioxide emissions. I was pleasantly surprised to read that this effort is not being put out by more liberal-leaning denominations like our own but by the National Association of Evangelicals--not exactly a hotbed of tree huggers. I read with a wry smirk on my face the obvious confusion exhibited by James Imhofe (R-OK) about Christians using the Bible to justify such a "liberal" position (he seems to have no problems when these same evangelicals use the Bible to oppose abortion and same-sex marriage):
Peanuts anyone? I listened with interest to the interview with Jimmy Carter on NPR's Fresh Air. He's got a new book out called Our Endangered Values. It's more than a bit ironic that America's first evangelical president became and remains the punching bag of the religious right. Who Would Jesus Torture? David Batstone of Sojourners magazine, USA Today, and regular op-ed contributor to many major newspapers, asks the question "Who Would Jesus Torture?" in response to the efforts of the White House opposing a recent bill to prohibit torture by U.S. troops. He makes the sound point that Christians of all political stripes should oppose the practice of torture:
Who listens to this guy? Last but not least, Rev. Pat Robertson was back on his wacko horse last week declaring that the town of Dover, PA had "voted God out of your city" by voting out the school board that wanted to teach Intelligent Design in their biology classes. The only real question I have is who listens to this nutcase any more? I listened with interest to the interview of one of the newly-elected Dover school board members on Morning Edition this morning. She seems utterly sane and supports teaching religion in schools in courses on world religions not in science classes. Peace, Chase
This past Sunday night I was privileged to represent our church at the Islamic Center of Long Island. Their president, Dr. Faroque Khan who is speaking at our church Sunday, issued an invitation to their Iftaar dinner. Iftaar is the traditional breaking of the daily fast at sundown each day during Ramadan. I was one of a number of clergy from churches and synagogues, along with other non-Muslim lay-people who attended. It was truly a wonderful experience. The people at the ICLI gave us an extravagant welcome and made time to answer our questions about Islam. Together we broke the fast by eating dates and drinking water, a tradition that began with Mohammed. Afterwards, they provided us a delicious dinner that we shared together with ICLI members. There were a number of things about the evening that defy the traditional images of Islam seen in our media. First, we were greeted by the chairperson of the ICLI board of trustees, who happens to be a woman and a doctor in private practice, who lives in Manhasset. She was terrific! Then prior to dinner, we were treated to a presentation by the girl scout troop that meets at the mosque. The wonderful girls dedicated a peace pole that will decorate the ICLI grounds. "Salaam"--Arabic for "peace"--graced each side of the pole. Finally, Dr. Khan spent a good deal of time answering questions, including questions about terrorism, suicide bombings, etc. He noted that prior to the Iraq war, the country with the greatest number of suicide bombings was Sri Lanka, which is still undergoing a decades-long civil war between Buddhists and Hindus. He reiterated the injunctions against suicide, killing non-combatants, and wars of aggression found in the Qu'ran and the Hadith--teachings of Mohammed. One of the pieces of literature they gave to us was "A Fatwa Against Terrorism and Extremism" by the Fiqh Council of North America, a society of the leading Islamic scholars in North America. It has been endorsed by nearly every major Islamic organization in America. Among its statements are the following:
It was a joyous evening for me personally. When it seems that the only pictures of Islam in the American media are ones of terrorists and the only depictions of Christian responses to Islam are ones of denunciation and condemnation, it was great to feel like at least in this small corner of the world people of different faiths could gather together to share a meal and each other's company. I am eagerly looking forward to hearing Dr. Khan speak this Sunday and hope that it will be the beginning of a beneficial relationship between our two communities of faith. ******* To follow up with Monday's post regarding Rosa Parks and the other women who were arrested prior to her for also not giving up their bus seats to whites, I was interested to see an article in today's Newsday about Mary Ware and Claudette Colvin. Peace, Chase
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