Mainline churches should be silent while Religious Right political leaders get to speak their mind? Do you care?

Apparently, the major networks the newest ad campaign by the United Church of Christ is too controversial to put on the air. What do you think? (Click on the image to see the ad)

I personally thing that the ad is very good, and not at all controversial.

Connected with this is also an email campaign asking ABC to provide more balanced coverage of religious leaders in this country. To look at the people they speak with now, you’d think that James Dobson and Jerry Falwell represent the the entire spectrum of Christianity in America.

One Year Bible Blog: March 24th readings

Psalm 67:1-2

Like many other psalms, this one asks for the blessings of God. What I think is important, though, is the motivation for asking. It is not for the comfort of Israel. Rather, it is so that the entire Earth can see the grace, mercy, and power of God.

I get upset with those who preach that prosperity is a sign of God’s favor, and hard times an indication of God’s anger. As if “living the good life” is the God-given right of every believer. I don’t believe that. I do believe that, in whatever circumstance we find ourselves, we can use it so “that [God's] way may be known upon earth, [God's] saving power among all nations.” (NRSV)

Which dovetails nicely into Luke 6:20-26, when Jesus tell his disciples that they are blessed for the trials they endure for his sake. The text talks about heavenly rewards, but I think it’s also that those rewards will mean all the more, because of the earlier pain. I have never been truly hungry, so I don’t fully appreciate the blessing of being full. Even the (very few) times I’ve fasted, I’ve always known it would be ending at such-and-such time, and was under my control.

President’s Statement on H.R. 199, the “USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005″

(Thanks to The Carpetbagger Report for pointing this out)

According to this official statement on the White House’s web site, Bush gladly signed the new Patriot Act into law. However, he also claims that, basically, he doesn’t have to follow the parts he doesn’t like (the reporting and accountability components), claiming, basically, executive privledge. He doesn’t have to follow the parts that he deems to interfere with his constitutional duties.

Was he talking to the same lawyers who told him he could ignore FISA when he chose to?

Actually, maybe this is a good thing. If Bush is claiming that some aspects of the law are constitutionally unenforcable, maybe it’s time for a challenge to it in the Supreme Court. Then, either the president loses, and he has to follow the whole law, or he wins, and the law is struck down as unconstitutional.
Hmm. That has potential.

Chron.com | Katrina funds earmarked to pay for Neil Bush’s software program

It has always bugged me when people make a charitable “gift” with strings attached. If you’re still controlling it, then it’s not a gift. It’s a bribe. An attempt to control the “receiving” organization. If you’re going to give a gift, then give it. Don’t use it as bait to get what you want. Even if “all you want” is recognition.

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A Different Perspective » The Farcical End of the American Dream

Alan over at “A Different Perspective” has written a piece about torture and abuse by Americans in the war on terror. But he has an interesting twist to it. Of course, he decries torture as deplorable, but instead of railing against the current administration, he turns it ito a call to action for conservatives. He’s not confrontational. He’s not trying to change anyone’s opinion about the rightness or wrongness of the war. He’s just calling on conservatives to oppose torture, which hopefully we all agree is evil and un-American. He recognizes that, as someone who is basically a liberal, his voice is unlikely to be heard directly by conservatives.

He may be on to something.

I’ve been writing about not knowing how to be an effective agent for change. I’m even more liberal than Alan, but it’s important to realize that those on the opposite side of the political spectrum are not bad, evil people. For the most part, they truly believe in the causes they champion, just as liberals do. I expect that a country controlled completely by liberals would be no better than one completely controlled by conservatives. The problems would be different, to be sure, but I have no doubt that there would be problems. We need opposing views to keep us on track.

I don’t know – maybe this doesn’t make any sense. We certainly have to speak out against policies that we see as wrong. But maybe we can find ways to do so without attacking the people who agree with them. Because, even between the most radical of liberals and the most reactionary of conservatives, we have more in common than we have differences.

In some ways, it seems to relate to the tension between traditional church and the emergent (emerging?) church movement. Many on the traditional side see the emergent movement as minions of Satan, undermining the foundations of the church, while many on the emergent side see the traditional church as no better than the Pharisees that Jesus condemned as hypocrits and no better than whitewashed tombs. But fighting and name-calling isn’t going to accomplish anything. It’s in honest dialog that we can learn the strengths and insights of the “other side,” and the weaknesses and blind spots of ours. And they can learn the same from us.

But before that can happen, we have to be willing to expose our weakness. We have to be willing to say, “I don’t have all the answers. Please help me to understand your perspective, and I’ll try to help you understand mine.

Well, i went rather far afield with this post. Thanks for sticking with it so long.

One Year Bible Blog: March 21st readings

Numbers 32:

I’m trying to figure out why it was OK for the tribes of Reuben and Gad to choose the land that they would inherit. If I remember correctly from earlier in the book, God told Moses that the amount of land was to be allocated by the size of the tribe, but the location of the land was to be decided by random lot. Reuben and Gad wanted to choose the specific regions that they would get, because it was good for their cows. Moses thought it was a ploy to avoid fighting, but was OK with it as long as they pledged to fight along side the rest of Israel. It just doesn’t make sense to me that God would mete out severe punishment for earlier sins which seemed more a matter of interpretation, while ignoring what appears to me to be a blatant disregard for explicit instructions.

Luke 5

The thing that struck me about this passage was the actions of Peter, James and John. They were so amazed by Jesus apparent ability to call the fish into the nets that they were immediately convinced of his divinity. Obviously fish were a hugely significant feature in their lives. That’s why I think it’s so amazing that, in verse 11, “When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.” It’s sort of like Jesus handing one of us a winning lottery ticket. I don’t know that my response would be to leave it behind to follow him. I’d like to think it would, but I’m not so sure.

Godly Leadership | CrossLeft

Pilgrim at CrossLeft.org has written a post bemoaning the lack of a progressive leader who can galvanize the left into a cohesive voice against the abuses of the current administration. S/he looks somewhat longingly back to the 70s, asking what happened to the activists of days gone by.

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(what is a “petard” anyway?)

Or “the shoe is on the other foot”. Or “What goes around comes around.” Whatever your favorite version of the sentiment may be. I’ve become the most recent example of it.

I currently have a small role in “Sordid Lives” at Baytown Little Theater. I’m supposed to be playing a west-Texas Baptist preacher, doing a funeral. Well this northern boy never really learned to “talk Texan.” I’ve been told my attempts sound like a cross between Georgia and British. Given that we’re doing this show in Texas, there’s no shortage of people to tell me how badly I’m doing the accent.

However, that’s not the worst of it. Two of the other people in the show have been in shows that I’ve directed: Lady Windermere’s Fan, by Oscar Wilde (a turn of the last century British play) and Brighton Beach Memoirs, by Neil Simon (about a family of New York Jews just before WWII). So I have a reputation with these two of harping on my east Texas actors to try to mask their accents.

They are enjoying my struggles way too much.

President Signs the Stop Counterfeiting in Manufactured Goods Act

… Counterfeiting hurts national security, as terrorist networks use counterfeit sales to sometimes finance their operations.

You have GOT to be kidding. Don’t get me wrong – I’m all for preventing knock-offs of “brand name” products. But billing this as a counter-terrorism tool? Give me a break. It seems to have become so automatic for this administration to use the terrorism “trump card” to bolster everything it does, that it’s being invoked without even thinking about it.

One of these days, Mr. Bush is going to wake up to find that, just like in the case of an antibiotic that’s been used too much, the American people will have become resistant to this rhetoric. At least, I sincerely hope so. I just hope that it isn’t over a situation where it should be used, and innocent lives are lost.

One Year Bible Blog: March 16th readings

This is a musical day!

Numbers 24:17 is the basis for a wonderful piece of music by Felix Mendelsohn, “Behold a Star from Jacob Rising.”  I tried (unsucessfully, so far) to find an MP3 of it to upload.

Luke 2:29-32 is the basis of the Nunc Dimitis, done by too many composers to name.
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