faithasawayoflife

america the not so beautiful

check this out from a new faith-based liberal and pretty thoughtful organization, faithfulamerica.org.

(click for larger view)

anon, and + peace

for god so loved the world, II

a friend called to leave me a message at about 4:30 in the afternoon and i don't know where i was, but he joked that i must have to leave the office early since i ride my bike. ha, ha.

he reads my blog and i can take the ribbing about being stuck on the question of the environment. i do have to admit it seems to be on my mind lately. i'm thinking a lot about ecology and work since our faith as a way of life project's working group is focusing on work this spring by visiting tyson foods in springdale, arkansas. tyson is interesting because they are not willing to let profit steamroll concern for the moral impact of their businesses, and so are seeking ways to moderate the way their push towards factory farming impacts the environment. tough business, tough issues, and we're going to try to theologize about these things in a very grounded way. that, dear readers, is what pastors need to do to be effective: grounded practical theological reflection. anyway, more on that in future posts, and more here on pollution.

another reason i've been thinking about the environment is because our family minivan was really freaking out and we were faced with the question of what to do to replace it. we looked at the schedule for coming out with hybrid minivans but their not coming anytime soon. then we looked at the new toyota highlander hybrid but it is not nearly as big as a minivan and doesn't have the many family friendly features, and for about 10 k more in price. i don't think so. so then the question was new or used. we opted for new, thinking that a new car would have the best running engine and most up-to-date capacity for smog-reduction, in addition to having good coverage if anything goes wrong. and we don't have to deal with other family's ground in cheerios and when their dog couldn't wait till the next exit and etc. new is good when it comes to minivans. they get trashed by families. so here is our toyota sienna:

my son, isaiah, picked the red color. it gets about 19 in the city and 26 on the highway, and it rates about average in greenhouse gasses emitted per year. not great, not awful. ah, well. dreams of moral purity fall away and i must trust that we are saved by grace, not our gas mileage. out of gratitude, then, and not any other reason, we join god's work of mending the world in this case by seeking to moderate the impact of our living on life's flourishing in god's glorious creation.

anon, and +peace

bono to bush: and you give yourself away . . .

bono, who serves as a contemporary psalmist of our times much in the mold of the biblical david, also serves as a contemporary jeremiah (minus the jail terms) working to call his and other powerful governments to account for their inattention to the cries of the poor, writes an op-ed in today's new york times giving advice to george bush on his upcoming trip to europe. His perspective could be summarized in the lyrics of that famous relationship song from the joshua tree: with or without you, and its echoing wrenching line "and you give yourself away, and you give yourself away, and you give, and you give yourself away. . . thus lives someone whose heart has been broken in christ, and poured out for the world. you give, and you give. you even try to out-give god, even though it is crazy. because that, finally, is where our hope lies. so bono enourages bush to give in relation to europe, europe to give in relation to the u.s., and both to give in relation to africa where so much hangs in the balance. there, as another song puts it, they are 'waiting for the crumbs from our tables.'

here it is:

Give a Little
By BONO

Published: February 20, 2005

EUROPE is securing its ports, steeling itself for an American charm offensive. Over the coming days, President Bush and his hosts will shake hands, slap backs, make toasts. But if the United States and Europe really want to repair their relationship, they should look to another continent: Africa.

Both America and Europe have a stake in preventing African states from crumbling. Both have an interest in ending the poverty that breeds violence. And both feel a moral obligation to stop the hemorrhaging of life.

Aren't those shared interests obvious? Not lately. We lament - but secretly indulge - our differences. Points of tension are points of pride. Snottiness is the new patriotism.

So what can Mr. Bush do? Well, he can clear up some confusion about America's basic beliefs. Americans are overtly devout. And yet Europeans, who inhabit a more secular world, give more per capita than Americans to what the Bible calls "the least of these" - the world's poor. The United States is in 22nd place, last in the class of donor nations. (Add private philanthropy and it's up to 15th.) Europeans see the discrepancy, and they smell hypocrisy.

President Bush should try to help Europeans understand American generosity. He should remind people that the United States has gotten more AIDS drugs to more Africans than anyone else. But he should also underscore that Americans want to ensure that the money is spent responsibly.

To Europeans, this "tough love" approach seems cruel. But there is compassion at its core. Mr. Bush can demonstrate this by putting more financial muscle behind his push for "accountability." If he does, Europeans will follow suit. They will see talking tough on poverty as a perfect rhyme for talking tough on terrorism. If Europe and America work together, a breakthrough for Africa is within reach. Then, other obstacles will fall away - as will the misconceptions that blind us to one another.

Bono, a singer for the band U2, is the founder of DATA, which campaigns against AIDS and poverty in Africa.

if god so loved the world, . . .

On theological grounds Christians ought to join Europe and press our president to wake up about the impact of our pollution on the environment. This, from the Financial Times:

Mr Bush's visit to Europe in the next week has been presented by the president as an opportunity to repair relations with Europe over climate change.

“We care about the climate,” he said on Thursday, while setting out some of the US's existing actions on climate change, chiefly the development of new technologies that will replace fossil fuel.

The US is the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide and was responsible for about 20 per cent of the world's total emissions of the gas in 2000, according to the Pew Centre on Climate Change, a US research organisation.

But European governments and climate change specialists are likely to be wary of approaches that rely on long-term technology development and bilateral agreements dealing with certain aspects of climate change, instead of multilateral agreements on taking immediate action to curb carbon emissions the approach that the EU and the United Nations have taken.

This week saw the entry into force of the UN-brokered Kyoto protocol on climate change, which binds developed nations to strict limits on the amount of greenhouse gases they are allowed to emit.

The US has refused to ratify the protocol, and has been accused of stalling talks aimed at forging a new agreement on carbon dioxide emissions to replace the main provisions of the treaty, which expire in 2012.

Moreover, a central contention of Mr Bush on climate change, reiterated by the US delegation to the Kyoto protocol talks last December, is that there has to date been insufficient scientific research to establish whether or not climate change is really occurring, and is the result of human action if it is.

The latest study from the Scripps Institute challenges that view.

christian citizenship calls for action.

anon, and +peace

pollution as a way of life

i rode my bike today. now it is 4:45 and raining. great.

i rode my bike today even though i knew it would rain because it is the first day when the kyoto protocol on climate change goes into effect. i wanted to protest the united states' lack of participation. it seems a moral imperative that we lead on such issues since the engines of our nation's development are the very source of greenhouse gasses that are producing global warming and what i shall call 'unsustainable development.' in biblical terms, we're the ones who hoarded manna, and it is now beginning to look like the hoarding has negative consequences we're unwilling to admit for the sake of what (short-term) benefit such hoarding brings us.

i take heart that it seems the citizens of the united states want to support this treaty (see here and above graphic). but i have to say that when dick cheney said that "conservation may be a sign of personal virtue but it is not a sufficient basis for sound, comprehensive energy policy" i knew that more had to be said, and that riding my bike is not enough. he basically challenged those of us who believe that our faith requires an active conservation as a part of the stewardship of creation have to do more than ride our bikes instead of driving. we have to take up cheney's challenge to do the hard thinking about ways to move forward on environmental issues while looking clearly at the importance of jobs and the economy. but it seems to be that this early signal (the speech was april 30, 2001) showed what has become a pattern of unilateral action that serves our often narrowly construed national interest rather than seeking the long view cooperatively with other nations.

some days, i want to sit down with george bush and read him the story of the tortoise and the hare. our power and influence will wane, and his leadership may even be hastening its coming, and when it does come, we'll be much better off if we have built strong allegiances and tended the commons rather than looking after old number one. then we might be a model of the sort of servant leadership that behooves the creatures who isaiah likened to 'grass that withers, and flowers that fade.'

anon, and +peace

why i like paris hilton's multi-cross necklace on theological grounds

first of all let me say i, unlike some crabby fathers of the church, have nothing against jewelry. and although i'm tempted to say things that are critical of paris hilton personally, i won't (lest she comment on my blog pointing out the log in my eye). but since this line of jewelry jumped out at me when I was looking for a book on amazon, i thought i would react back, focusing especially on this item in her new jewelry line.

click on photo for a larger view:

the interesting thing to me is the way the glitter and excess of the whole image is subverted by two simple facts, if one has eyes to see. first, the simple fact that it is a cross. this can never, for me, escape either jesus' death on the cross or its meaning as redemptive solidarity with all those who suffer in the world. such a symbol mocks the excess of sterling and diamonds (crystals, actually, so as to be affordable to the masses). and then, lovely of lovelies, there are seven crosses. seven. the number of fullness. god created the world in seven. it is the image, therefore, of a wholly subverted commercial excess and self-referentiality. paris hilton compels us to look at her, and bids us desire to be looked at as we look at her, and yet in fixing our gaze on her, the product's depth becomes icon, pointing beyond. beyond to the fullness of one who looks upon us with a deeper love, a fuller grace, a measure that takes no account of such glitter but only the fullness of what dwells within us.

anon, and +peace

christo--a saffron spectacle

sonja, isaiah, grace, and friend maija on a rock in central park with 'the gates' in the background.

sunday after church we went down to nyc to walk through the new spectacle public art display of christo and his wife, jeanne-claude. the gist of it is a midwinter display of 7500 tall gates with half curtains hanging down on all the walkways of central park. almost as if they are blood running through the veins of the park, and following that image, the gates bring out throngs of people so that the walks are literally full of life. the nytimes had a pretty gushing take.

mako fujimura, an artist who works with our center's faith as a way of life project, said something that caught my attention and helped make sense of part of my experience walking around central park. "the art of the early 21st century may be remembered for its collective move from inside of the studio to the outside. andy goldworthy, in his 'rivers and tides' documentary recounts how he began to create his works at the beach on the way to his art classes, and realized that the world is his true 'studio.' christo and jeanne-claude certainly paved the way for this paradigm shift. the most significant contribution of their works will be to help all of us believe that the world is the greater and more significant studio or stage, and more importantly, to see that our own creative vision can directly affect landscapes and cities."

i'm currently teaching a series of classes on the theological voice of the rock band U2, and there is a similarity in that both U2 and christo create community through doing their art in a big way, in a public way, facing out towards the world. While christo and jeanne don't explicitly claim any christian motivation, as U2 clearly does, they both embody something that the church so very often doesn't do and that is seek to create community through doing something accessible and flashy and lovely out in and for the sake of the world.

too often, we do our art and lovely things inside, for our own sake, and therefore forsake the world for the safety of our 'studio.' what would it mean for us to follow the methods mako points to, of moving our christian arts of living and loving and celebrating and lamenting from inside of the studio (church) to the outside? scary? yes, and just maybe faithful, too.

anon, and +peace

phil vischer

that's right, the big tomato is coming as part of our theology live series this week. i'm really excited and not just because i love a superhero with plungers for ears. what excites me about phil is his very carefully articulated vision of change in our culture that refuses to make faith private yet takes it public in a way that doesn't use the bible as a weapon. here is a great quote that makes my point:

'hollywood is so effective at storytelling and entertaining; their influence is much bigger than their size. no other industry can affect our culture and our morality as much. we christians haven't been savvy or clever enough in using or responding to media influence.'

remind anyone of luke 16:8? so, what's his big idea for being more clever?

'we're not trying to build a christian media company, we're trying to build a media company with a christian worldview.'

remind anyone of u2? i think this distinction is crucial, and at the heart of what we're learning about how faith can have traction in the world without being being coersive. it is, of course, crucial to one's impact to say quite a bit more about what content the 'christian worldview' has but that can be for another post.

more after vischer's visit on thursday.

anon, and +peace