faithasawayoflife

learning by practice: meet my ibanez

Since I'm doing research on learning by  practice (a study of theological education from the perspective of the learners), I thought I should learn something myself.   Isaiah, my  (as of Saturday) 10-year-0ld, has been learning guitar for three years, so I thought about guitar, too.  But I sing tenor and bass lines on hymns and have played the baritone horn since 5th grade.  So playing the bass guitar seemed more natural.  I've been playing since last summer and I'm starting to get a feel for where to put my hands.  I might write more about it but for now, meet my  Ibanez  AEB.  It is a sweet guitar.  Here's a picture. 

On Declaring ‘God Damn America’: Obama and Wright, Neibuhr and Cone

An amazing moment is unfolding in the United States.  In response to criticism of inflammatory snippets taken from the sermons of The Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s pastor for over twenty years, Senator Obama wrote and delivered the most powerful speech on race in America I have ever heard.  The speech, watched live on Tuesday by over 4 million, and now the top video on YouTube since with over 1.7 million views, discusses Rev. Wright’s sermons against the backdrop of our nation’s struggle with slavery and race from its very beginnings.  While much of the television and internet debate has taken place in attack mode, drawing on sound bites and shallow understanding of the issues, Senator Obama has paid down on his oft-professed “faith in the decency and generosity of the America people” by offering them a personal, eloquent, and thoughtful accounting of the problems and possibilities before us regarding the very real racial fissures in our nation.

When I heard Senator Obama speak in Hartford in January, he said: “I’ve not only read the Constitution, I’ve taught the Constitution and I believe in the Constitution.”  And as he began his speech on race in the United States of America, the Constitution provided his title and starting place.  “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.”  He recounted how the framers of the Constitution looked the issue of slavery in the eye and blinked, leaving its resolution to future generations.  The answer was there all along, however.  The Constitution, Senator Obama points out, has at its “very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law.”  Successive generations have had to take up the hard work of forming a more perfect union.  And it was, he says, for the sake of this work that he decided to run for president—“to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America.”  Perhaps more importantly, his conviction is that we cannot solve these problems—we cannot perfect the union—unless we do it together.

This, as I’ve argued before, represents at significant  and distinctive theological framing of the possibilities of the nation and it is hard for many Americans to accept.  Let me first comment on why Senator Obama’s viewpoint is so significant theologically, and why it is hard for Americans to accept.  Within that context, then, I can finally say something about the so-called ‘inflammatory’ and ‘anti-American’ preaching of The Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, long the senior pastor of Senator Obama’s church, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

Senator Obama’s favorite theologian is not a black liberation theologian, as is the case for Rev. Wright (who cites James Cone, among others).  Obama’s favorite theologian is Reinhold Neibuhr, whose long and influential career at Union Theological Seminary in New York cast a web of influence that caught up preachers and presidents alike, including perhaps most famously Martin Luther King Jr.  Asked by David Brooks of the New York Times what he took away from Neibuhr’s writings, Obama said “"I take away the compelling idea that there’s serious evil in the world, and hardship and pain. And we should be humble and modest in our belief we can eliminate those things. But we shouldn’t use that as an excuse for cynicism and inaction. I take away the sense we have to make these efforts knowing they are hard, and not swinging from naïve idealism to bitter realism."  Such a perspective embodies what Niebuhr called Christian realism, a counterpoint to what he called America’s tendency to embrace a belief in the doctrine of ‘special providence,’ that is, the idea that we are a redeemer nation called to spread our light to others who struggle in darkness.  Read Niebuhr’s The Irony of American History, for example, to get more on this perspective, or listen to his sermon on “Our Lord’s Conception of the Providence of God” here.

Why is this sort of perspective hard for many Americans to accept?  At present, one of the overwhelming reasons is the hyper-patriotic reaction to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.  President Bush has played strongly into the tradition that views America as pure, and as destined to bring our light to the world that still lives in darkness.  That framing—good versus evil, freedom versus tyranny—has been powerful in a time of great national anxiety and I think propelled President Bush to a second term despite his gross mismanagement of the nation on many levels, not least of which is the war in Iraq, a war I have called immoral and unjust from the start.  When people buy into the rhetoric of America as innocent, as guardian of the moral high ground, as somehow beyond the pale of critique, then a Niebuhrian perspective sounds unpatriotic at best. 

If someone has the view of America as innocent, and of patriotism as upholding glory of our nation’s ideals at any cost, then there is little room for a prophetic critique of the sins of the nation—slavery and the legacy of racism as a major case in point.  Many reactions to Rev. Wright’s sermon, dug up by ABC News and replayed on television and YouTube, have come from this perspective.  I have not seen the full sermon anywhere (which is a concern—who wants to be quoted out of context), but the clip being broadcast shows Rev. Wright preaching in a 2003 sermon:

“"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible, for killing innocent people, God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."

Unless we as a nation, and especially those of us who are white, can hear in Rev. Wright’s sermon a cry for a more perfect union, then I think we’ve missed the deepest level of such a stinging critique.  This is, after all, sentiment expressed by a respected and highly educated Christian minister, a man who served his country honorably as a United States Marine, one who has continued to serve his country in the tough neighborhoods of South Chicago where many white people wouldn’t dare to visit, let alone live and work.  Read Rev. Wright’s full sermon titled “The Audacity of Hope” (the source of Senator Obama’s book title) and you’ll see what tremendous brokenness he deals with on a daily basis.   Yet he does not end there; he ends with a call for hope for a world of liberty and justice for all, even and especially when no visible signs can be found, because God has promised to make a way out of no way, and that promise sustains us in the face of unjust bondage. 

Anyone who takes the time to study the statistics on drug use versus drug sentencing will quickly see how disproportionately black Americans have born the brunt of this social ill.   A recent study by the Pew Center on the States titled “One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008” says that while only 1 in 106 white men ages 18 and older are in prison, 1 in 15 black men ages 18 and older are currently serving time.  The agony of such a statistic for the black community cries out in the words of Rev. Wright.  And such prophetic cries are a staple of the American tradition from Frederick Douglass’ stinging denunciation of the 4th of July to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s exposing of America’s morally bankrupt foreign policy to Rev. Wright’s denunciation of America’s complacency in the fact of the disproportionate incarceration of America’s black population.  It is, as Robert Bellah reminds us again and again as perhaps our most distinguished sociologist of American life, a virtue of our more inspiring national leaders has been the ability to evoke our nations’ standing under the judgment of God, and not only God’s blessing.  False prophets lead us to believe that God would only have blessing in store for us. 

Abraham Lincoln, for example, in his Second Inaugural:

“If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said ‘the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether’.”

Rev. Wright, it turns out, does not condemn America unequivocally.  He said, “God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.”  That prophetic cry, that lament, could well be construed as a Christian American cry for “a more perfect union.”  We live, as the pledge of allegiance to the flag says, as “one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”  When I say that pledge at the elementary school my children attend, surrounded by 80% black children in a failing school district struggling against the odds to build community and educate well, I have a sense that it is indeed a pledge and not the reality.  You may prefer more sugar-coated rhetoric, but we in America stand under God’s judgment for the sins of our nation.  We all have a role in seeking to pay due on that pledge, to come together with Senator Obama--whether or not he becomes the next president of the United States--to “build a more perfect union.”  It will not ever be perfect, but we have the choice before us now, in an unprecedented moment in time, to join together in making it “more perfect.” 

Peace,

Chris

towards a more perfect union

1 in 4 girls has an STD

Wow.  My son is 10 this month and my daughter is 7.  The headlines the last few days have focused on a major new study on sexually transmitted diseases among young girls.  Here's a graphic that tells part of the story:

Some girls offered their thoughts about why.  Very instructive, I'd say.  Here's the quote (and here's a link to the whole article.)

"The Marrow girls offered several reasons why teenagers have sex.

'It's to fit in, peer pressure,' Christine said, noting that virgins are often mocked. Also, 'sex sells on TV.'

Khadijah chimed in that some young girls found their inspiration in the popular R&B singer Rihanna, whose latest album is titled 'Good Girl Gone Bad'

But Christina suggested something closer to home. 'Write this down,' she said. 'Bad parenting'."

I talk about this in my new book, Faith as a Way of Life, I have a chapter on faith and family.  One of the key issues there is about how few parents talk in depth about their faith and values with children, and talk through these sorts of moral choices with them--drugs, sex, even what sorts of music to listen to. Sonja and I talked the other day about how we feel about songs that have profanity in them as okay for the kids.  This came about partly because of a segment of "The News From Lake Wobegon" in which someone learns to swear well.  Isaiah thought it was really funny, but we didn't so much and we turned it off.  But then we talked about swearing.  I think we'll keep on talking, about swearing and much more.

peace,
Chris

Call to Lament and Repent the War in Iraq

I signed this; will you?  We need the conviction to stand together in sorrow and beg the Lord of  heaven and earth to guide our feet in the ways of peace.

+Chris

A Call to Lament and Repent:  Guide Our Feet to the Path of Peace

“By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” —Luke 1:78-79 (NRSV)

»Sign the statement

This season of Lent, we are truly living “ in darkness and in the shadow of death” as we mark, on March 19, 2008, the fifth anniversary of the war with Iraq.  It is a war that is being waged by our country, financed by our taxes, and fought by our sisters and brothers. As U.S. Christians, we issue a call to the American church to lament and repent of the sin of this war.   

We lament the suffering and violence in Iraq .  We mourn the nearly 4,000 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who have died, the unknown numbers of both who are wounded in body and mind, and the more than 4 million Iraqis who are displaced from their homes. With the families of U.S. soldiers torn apart, our families are also torn apart.   

We lament the effects of this war on our country. The war has undermined our religious and national values. International perceptions of the U.S. church’s support for the war have hurt the cause of Christ. The abuse of prisoners and use of torture have damaged the U.S.’s moral standing in the world. The war is squandering billions of dollars that are urgently needed for other domestic and international needs.

We repent of our failure to fully live the teaching of Jesus to be peacemakers.  Some of us believe our faith leads to a rejection of war, while others affirm just war principles—but after five years of conflict, we are convinced that continuing occupation and war in Iraq cannot be reconciled with just war teaching, and it is the obligation of Christians to help bring unjust wars to an end. The U.S. occupation must end; a transition to an international solution to Iraq must be found. A peaceful resolution is possible and must be pursued.  Our country should end this war, not try to “win” it, and we must help the Iraqi people build a safer and more peaceful country. 

We believe repentance means more than just being sorry. Repentance requires a change of heart and a commitment to a new direction. Repentance means transformation—breaking out of our conformity to a foreign policy based on fear and war to a policy that is rooted in seeking justice and pursuing peace. There is a better way—and the U.S. church must take the lead. 

We dedicate ourselves to the biblical vision of a world in which nations do not attempt to resolve international problems by waging war on other nations .  We believe the followers of the Prince of Peace should be the hardest ones, not the easiest, to convince to go to war. We are not utopians—we acknowledge that human beings and nations will have conflicts. But given the toll that the habit of war has taken in our violence-torn world, we must begin to learn to resolve our inevitable conflicts by learning the arts and skills of conflict resolution and a new international approach to just peace-making and law enforcement. We must seek a world in which we allow our Lord “ to guide our feet into the path of peace."

As a sign of repentance and commitment to lead our nation toward a new path, I pledge to:

● Pray for our nation to learn lasting lessons from th e tragedy of the war in Iraq and commit to greater wisdom in the future.

● Help heal our nation by talking and listening to our fellow Christians, finding better ways to resolve conflicts—by seeking the reconciliation of our divisions and working together for a more peaceful world.

● Reach out to the veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, who often, after making terrible sacrifices, feel abandoned.

● Urge our elected representatives to:

• pursue a foreign policy consistent with moral principles, wise political judgments, and international law
• ensure that veterans and their families are provided with the medical, psychological, financial, and spiritual support they need
• fulfill our responsibility, working with the international community, to stabilize and rebuild Iraq, provide humanitarian support, and resettle those displaced by war.

Repentance requires a change of direction and a new commitment to follow Jesus, who tells us very clearly, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”

Martin Luther in the New York Times Sunday Op-Ed

In a powerful and articulate Sunday Op-Ed column in the New York Times, Nicholas D. Kristof writes scoldingly of the religious bigotry in the presidential primary race.  That's right, not bigotry regarding racism or sexism but on account of religion.

In a most unexpected and delightful conclusion, he gives props to Martin Luther.

"Martin Luther wasn't a model of tolerance, but even he took the position that, 'I'd rather be ruled by a wise Turk than a foolish Christian.'  In this presidential campaign, we should at least aspire to be as open-minded as 16th century Germans."

Read the whole thing here.

A theological footnote.  Luther did argue very similar things, even if the quote is legendary.  The issue, for Luther, was protection against sinful people who left to their own devices would soon have society in chaos.  In such chaos, the Gospel could not be preached.  So God instituted government and ordains rulers to political office to restrain sinful and destructive behavior, drawing on the reason and sense of right implanted in every person equally as a human beings created in God's image.  Reason and experience together teach humans enough how to govern with regard to things of this life.  The world cannot be run by true Christians according to the Gospel.  In another famous quip, Luther reportedly said, "The sheep, to be sure, would keep the peace and would allow themselves to be fed and governed in peace.  But they would not live long."  For more on all this, see William H. Lazareth, Christians in Society: Luther, the Bible and Social Ethics.  It would be totally anacronistic to say Luther was tolerant, since the value of tolerance emerged as a liberal enlightenment political value many years after Luther's death.  What could be said, however, is that for profoundly theological reasons Luther could imagine being ruled well by a Muslim.  That, friends, is an even stronger argument that Kristof made in his column.
 

faith as a way of life: book description

My new book, Faith as a Way of Life: A Vision for Pastoral Leadership, is done.  I sent all the page proofs back to David Bratt, the editor working with me on the book, along with scripture and topical indexes.  Oh, yes, and the final draft of Miroslav Volf's foreword.  I'll post a bit of that soon.  Anyway, here is the book description on the Eerdmans' website.  It is pithy and gets to the core of the book.  It is ranked 148,000 on Amazon so someone's preordering it!  Thanks!

"Christian ministry is deeply concerned with proclaiming the transforming power of God’s gift of faith in the daily lives of disciples. How is it, then, that Christian faith so often fails to be an orienting force that impacts every aspect of our lives?

In Faith as a Way of Life Christian Scharen articulates a vision of pastoral leadership grounded in substantive faith language. He examines other powerful languages in our culture — emotion-driven therapeutic and results-driven managerial models of leadership — and shows how their domination leads to faith becoming a weak sibling. Highlighting concrete examples of excellent pastoral leadership in action, Scharen offers creative practical theological reflection on how faith can truly inform our family life, our work, our politics, our leisure — literally all of life — and how pastoral leaders of all kinds can foster faith as a way of life."

a lament for jerusalem

I just can't believe the daily killings.
Now a school in Jerusalem.  Yesterday people in Gaza.  A student leader in North Carolina.  People at market in Baghdad.  New violence in Darfur.  A family killed by kids, including one daughter, in Texas.  Daily senseless deaths in the thousands because of hunger and lack of basic medicine.

"God, how long?  Break in, God, and break up this fight."  Psalm 6:3-4

How long till we learn to love one another?
How long till the horror ends?
Good Friday comes too often. 

Kyrie Eleison.