GAC, SUV, HIV, and IJM


Teaching at a Christian high school in suburban Atlanta provides blogger fodder daily.

Sometimes I wonder why I do it.

Driving twenty-plus miles through Atlanta on I-285 and I-85 twice a day seems stressful to such a soft suburbanite. Then after fighting all that traffic, I spend day after day with these mostly affluent 15 to 18 years olds in all their adolescent glory--plugged into iPods, driving SUVs, and hoping for the Ivy Leagues.

Sometimes I wonder why I do it.

Then there are days like December 1, 2004, World Aids Day.

Courtesy of World Vision, I showed a video to the student body giving a glimpse into the effects of the HIV/Aids pandemic. The response—palpable. The stress we experienced in traffic or in looking at PSAT scores subsided. Helpless in the face of such a crisis, there rose a collective sigh. We briefly discussed a broad array of responses to this enormous problem. For the moment, we decided we could do one small thing. We could do what we all seem to do well—SHOP. Within hours students began taking steps to contact World Vision to shop their “Gift Catalog”.

That’s why I teach at Greater Atlanta Christian School.

These young ones headed to the Ivy Leagues or other great institutions of higher learning will someday lead in business, in medicine, in law, in the arts, and in education. But no matter what field they chose for their careers, they have a vocation. A calling.

They will all be ministers. They will all be priests. And they will serve.

The next day in chapel two boys from the junior class asked students to help them start a campus chapter of the International Justice Mission. www.ijm.org

Spring break 2005 over 200 students plan to travel across the globe on mission trips including a group headed to an orphanage in Namibia.

That’s why I teach at Greater Atlanta Christian School.

To such tender hearts, fertile minds, and willing spirits we can talk about, plan for and work openly toward the kind of leadership to which Jesus calls. It’s a short time in their life and a such a window of opportunity to share the challenge to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.

Doughnuts >Dioxin

The President may regret the doughnuts.

Some of you may regret the President.

But all of us regret Yushchenko's diet of dioxin.

Sad things, frustrating things happen here. But we have to marvel that George W. Bush of the United States joined the ranks of 43 presidencies ascending to power sans violence. Even Election 2000, annoying, disconcerting, and somewhat disillusioning for some, doesn't touch the Ukraine's sad tale of dioxin.

Bush, Dowdy, and the Doughnut



Finally, I have found something George Bush and I have in common. We both gained about 6 pounds during the presidential campaign. We both found this out at the doctor’s office this week, and we both think it may be from eating doughnuts.

NPR did not report what kind of doughnuts Air Force One serves, if their kitchen window boasts an orange neon “HOT NOW” sign, or how the President slipped into this indulgence. However, both the President and I endured a long stressful campaign season. He on Air Force One; me on Taurus Three.

Now the commonality breaks down a bit. For me, budgetary concerns factored in. Add to that a mild sense of entitlement. I drive 20 miles across Atlanta traffic to work. I should be able to buy a good cup of coffee on the way. So attempting to indulge my sense entitlement with my budgetary concerns compelled me to stop going to Starbucks and opt for Dunkin’ Donuts instead. In some sort of voodoo economics I figured I would save money by driving thru Dunkin Donuts.

Okay, I admit, sometimes I thought myself worthy of coffee and a chocolate frosted doughnut.

Okay, I admit, sometimes I thought myself worthy of coffee and two chocolate frosted doughnuts.

Okay, I admit that adding doughnuts to the price of the coffee pretty much negated the budgetary advantage.

So do George and I have some commonality in the overriding themes in doughnut eating? Budgetary concerns? Entitlements? Such weighty issues divide us, I fear.

Maybe stress caused us to turn to the doughnut. For Bush--bearing the weight of the Presidency and the pressure of electoral politics. The trigger for me, I think—I am sure--was seeing John Kerry in camouflage carrying a shotgun and dead birds.

At any rate, George and I are committed to dropping this six and quick.

Don't DeLay--Morality's on the way?

Recently an African-American student asked me why the Republican kids at our Christian high school in suburban Atlanta treat her like she is immoral for speaking up for the Democrats. At times it's awkward being a black person in a red community. What would you tell her?

For example, take the recent rules change in the House. In 1993 the House Republicans wanted to show their moral superiority to the Democrats by saying that House leaders under federal indictment would not be allowed to keep their posts. But when Tom DeLay, House Majority Leader, and his friends were under investigation--the time came to change the rule. Certainly there was some spurious language in the accusations of DelLy's accuser, but the ethics problems for which he was reprimanded were not vacated. Juliet Eilperin's commentary The Trouble With Unity published in Sunday's Washington Post shows the manner in which House Republicans paved the high road. Check out this recent Washington Post editorial: On Rewriting Ethics History .

Back to my student. I told her that the there is a perception that the Republicans are more moral because their platform has a pro-life plank. Plus, the Republicans put an anti-gay marriage amendment up for a vote this summer. It’s always a quandary to know how to discuss such issues in class, because it is very important to be fair, sensitive, and honest. I think about the many sincere folks casting their votes for Bush with the phrases like “culture of life” ringing in their ears.

Here's what I believe: President Bush sincerely cares about abortion and is truly concerned about the social and moral issues related to homosexual marriage.The President will likely use his bully pulpit to continue the culture of life talk and the man and women make a marriage rhetoric for four more years. But the Republican Party? I do not believe we need have an African American shrinking violet in the classroom because her family perceives politics differently than her classmates. I believe this primarily because, in spite of Mr. Bush's personal proclivity for overturning Roe v. Wade and an anti-gay marriage amendment, no one should expect the Republican Party to establish the moral climate for which Christians pine. Because political parties are not about morality. Parties purvey political power. They are about winning elections and governing to continue winning elections.

This article by Dick Morris, political consultant and commentator on Fox News, from The Hill a newspaper for and about the U.S. Congress says to me that the pro-life vote for Bush may be illusionary.


“Thoughts on a Second Term”

Filibusters and judicial nominations. Beware of what happened to FDR in 1937 when, fresh from the most resounding reelection victory since the early days of the Republic, he became filled with hubris and proposed to pack the Supreme Court.

Despite overwhelming majorities in both houses of Congress, the public backlash not only killed the plan but doomed his entire second-term agenda to disaster and defeat. The imperial overreach of FDR’s second term is well-explained by Kenneth Davis in his book Into the Storm.

This election was not won over abortion. It was won over the war on terror primarily and gay marriage secondarily. If the right attempts to twist its meaning to suit its purposes and use it to defang the checks-and-balances system, it will be guilty of its own form of imperial overreach. A three-percentage-point win will not sustain such an overturning of the system on which people of both parties rely to assure moderation.

After giving no hint of so radical a step during the campaign — indeed after keeping it well-hidden — for President Bush to spring it now would be seen as an act of treachery by the many pro-choice voters who backed him because of his international leadership, confident that the filibuster would prevent him from going to extremes in his appointments.

Filibusters, obnoxious as they are to democracy, have acquired an accepted place in our democracy. Just as senators no longer feel obliged to vote against cloture, as they once did out of courtesy to one another, so the public no longer feels that the necessity to attract 60 votes for judicial nominations is too onerous.

If Bush jams through a ban on filibusters on nominations and then jams through Clarence Thomas as chief justice (by itself this would be OK) and then pushes a Thomas or Antonin Scalia clone for the open spot on the court, he will squander a huge segment of the political capital on which he is relying for more important tasks ahead.

If you find that impressive: read this more recent post by Morris: Evangelicals Support Comes at High Price

Back to my student--Her family sees racial healing and healthcare as high moral priorities. Shall I tell her the Republicans are more moral because they have higher standards on ethics? Or shall I say they will avoid treachery by using their political capital on the important tasks like cutting taxes and waging war? I could say it's the pro-life prank.

What would you say?

Perennial


Fridays postThanksgiving saluting tradition
find him
stringing sixties-style colored Christmas lights
gutters glowing
shrubs singing holiday
perennial

Early Easter Sunday embracing the ages
find him
hiding pastel-colored eggs
grass conspiring
leaves whispering hide one here
perennial

Muggy summer evenings accepting Southern hospitality
find him
planting cuttings neighbors offer
stems wobbling
green frames promising color next July
perennial

Long awaited Autumn afternoons celebrating equinox
find him
burying bulbs
daffodils gestating
berm exploding yellow come April
perennial

This fall he left
Said he didn't love her anymore
So who will string clunky colored lights?
Will the eggs still roll in April?
And what does perennial mean now?

Turning Beer into Furniture

Clear November skies chilled by Michigan’s fall winds made early November 1970 seem normal. But it was anything but normal. Thirty-four years ago today, we buried my forty-five year-old Daddy. Everyone kept saying, “He was so young.”

I thought—he wasn’t really all that young. But I was only seventeen.

Tonight my eyes strain to see his copper colored skin, his blue-black hair, and big, broad smile. I think hard and can almost hear his voice, including that persistent clearing of his throat. Thanks to Lucky Strikes, he always cleared his throat, especially when he gave the concluding remark to any discussion at our family dinner table.

When I sit at the dinner table with my boys, I can imagine him sitting with us listening to them, proud of their thoughtful funny repartee. Proud of their passion for Jesus and justice. Ready to clear his throat and make the culminating comment.

Herbert Taylor Choate possessed a zest for learning, for excellence in the performance of any task, and for placing life’s priorities in good order. First, God. Next, family. Third, education and career.

He was only seventeen he left the Cherokee community of Bunch, Oklahoma, joined the navy, and saw other boys throw flames into caves on Iwo Jima. He buried one brother. His other brother came home a boxing barber from the Burma Road. He died a premature death a few years later. Herb came home smoking and drinking hard. For years alcohol dulled the memories. Often sleep came with grinding teeth and nightmares. Deeply inhaling a freshly lit cigarette calmed his nerves. I can still see smoke curling from his lips.

Married, with one little girl, and me on the way, he put his LORD on in baptism, and left the booze behind. Taking to heart the grace of God, accepting the love of my mom’s family and the fellowship of the Van Dyke Church of Christ; he embraced a new lifestyle. Of course, even as a deacon, he still joined all other men for smoke between Sunday school and church.

Someone once asked him, “Herb, do you believe God still does miracles today?”

He said, “Well, I tell you what, I saw Jesus turn beer into furniture.”

I don’t know exactly why he had a heart attack on that November night, but I can make an educated guess. I often think—if he had known that hard drinking for those eight years and smoking for so many more would have kept him from spending an autumn evening around the dinner table trading stories and solving world problems with his grandsons, he would have stopped long before he did.

My Open Blog to Sean Hannity


My Christian friends like you so much; I thought I should listen to your show. So, I tuned in one day recently and heard you interview Anne Coulter. You discussed her new book, How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must). As you and Coulter bantered back and forth, I heard what earned her the review from the Washington Post Book World, as “a fluent polemicist with a gift for Menckenesque invective”. You laughed heartily at her comments and expressed admiration for her writing because it does, after all, have substance. You both poked fun that USA Today gutlessly decided not to print portions of her substantive spew. As I went to Amazon.com to find the book, a chapter title from her book clinched my understanding of Anne Coulter. In reference to Muslim extremist terrorists: “We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity”.

I now understand my Christian friends’ enthusiasm for your work. You are pro-life.

Not long after the segment in which you displayed such deep admiration for Anne Coulter, you interviewed someone from Haiti. Afterwards a good friend of mine told me that you asserted that poverty is a choice, you HATE HAITI, and you wouldn't have your dog's ashes tossed over that country. Perhaps she did not hear you correctly.

You see, I am looking to understand my Christian friends’ enthusiasm for your work. If what she said was true, then I see. It's because you are pro-life.

My Christian friends like you so much, I thought, I should check out your book. That's where I learned that Jimmy Carter=Neville Chamberlain. What a senseless, spineless, mindless, unprincipled man! He believes in pursuing peace. Can't we see the parallel to appeasing Hitler with the razing of settlements on the Sinai Peninsula and a treaty of peace between Egypt and Israel that has lasted for over 20 years? Silly of that Anwar Sadat to fall for the peace idea. What a cheap solution.

And back to Carter, what kind of man would refuse to negotiate with terrorists, would threaten the Iranian revolutionary government with the full force of the US military if one US hostage was killed, and then wait a year for a peaceful solution? What a disgraceful moment for our country when all of those hostages came home alive and we did not even have a good war to show for it. At least Carter's successor had the guts to negotiate arms for hostages.

I now understand my Christian friends’ enthusiasm for your work. You are pro-life.

Now before my Christian-friend fans of yours write to help me understand more reasons why you inspire them as a Christian, let me pre-empt a possible problem they may see in my understanding. They may need to explain to me that the left-wing liberal media, the left wing comedians, and the left-wing politicians can be mean-spirited and contemptuous too. And besides, don't I understand that there are people out there who want to kill us? But you see, I do understand. Don’t mistake my preference for peace to mean that we cannot engage in just war. It’s just that I do not presume that only the stupid, weak, and senseless see just war much differently than a Crusades redux.

From listening to your rhetoric I now understand: loving your political enemies, expressing kindness towards the poor, and making peace are such insipid secular stands, and you are pro-life.

Grant light, grant strength and patience to all who work for peace*

During the Kennedy adminstration, as the nuclear arms race created a palpable threat, Thomas Merton read a prayer into the Congressional Record.

Here's a portion of it:

Grant light, grant strength and patience to all who work for peace,
To this Congress, our President, our military forces, and our adversaries.
Grant us prudence in proportion to our power,
Wisdom in proportion to our science,
Humaneness in proportion to our wealth and might.
And bless our earnest will to help all races and people to travel, in friendship with us,
Along the road to justice, liberty, and lasting peace…


In your will, O God, is our peace!

To read the complete prayer click here.


*This prayer was published in Thomas Merton Essential Writings
edited by Christine M. Bochen
Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York, 2000

Single issue senselessness

The minister made his case against abortion this morning in a suburban Detroit church attended by my best friend. At the conclusion, he summarized the significance of the issue and then told the congregation that they must vote on the abortion issue. God will hold them accountable for their vote based on that issue. Sound like something coming from the Vatican? No, it was from a “nondenominational” independent church.

It seems to me that at some point, God may very well ask us what we did in the face of the abortion debacle. Yet, I am concerned that the preacher may have fallen into a trap from which logic will not allow escape. Even a high school civics teacher knows that elections do not measure public on opinion on single issues. A vote for a pro-life candidate may feel to voter to be a vote for life, but in today's party structure, the vote speaks to more issues—among them war and peace, human rights, and healthcare for starters.

Obviously, the minister meant that his congregation should vote Republican. Did anyone else observe two pro-choice figures dominating their convention? When Moral Majority leader Jerry Falwell was asked why he was not featured, his reply indicated that he did not attract folks like the other speakers, and what really mattered was winning the election. If some moral purity is effected by the election of the Republicans, is the message then that the ends justifies the means? Parading pro-choice people to draw the crowd looks more like bait and switch than furthering the will of God.

The preacher rightly has a passion about abortion, but does he have the moral, spiritual, or any other authority to say that abortion trumps all other moral concerns? Much to the chagrin of some fellow believers, hundreds of Christians, including dozens of evangelical leaders, signed on before the invasion of Iraq to a statement saying that the invasion of Iraq did not meet the “scripture test” including a widely accepted standard for just war.

As important as the protection of the unborn is, what about the thousands of Iraqi dead from American fire in this war? What message of the love and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is being communicated to the Arab world through our public policies? Justification of the Iraq War is open to passionate moral, political, even scriptural debate. So my question is: how can the minister justify lording his interpretation of political priorities on his congregation? What text does he use to back up such proposition?

For all the well meaning folks out there who desire to please God, honor His Word, and proclaim His Truth, my thought is this: honor His Word by proclaiming what is clearly revealed.

I recall that in Matthew's narrative Jesus spoke of accountability, but among the issues crucial to him-the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, and the stranger, I never remember the verse about voting Republican--or Democratic. If there were only one moral issue, then the preacher may have had a case, but the complexities of today's politics go far beyond a single issue, although there are many highly paid consultants who want church going folks to think otherwise.

Friends are friends for ?

from New York Times Wednesday, October 5
Taken at the Senate Prayer Breakfast 2001. Those were the good old days.

King of glory fill the earth

Fill the place in the rubble where the man pulls out his infant son
Lighten the darkened room where the widow heaves with the loss of her husband
Run down the street with the sister who heard an explosion moments ago
Sit with the Marine in the humvee
Follow the refugees to the camp in Sudan
Pour yourself, your very self into the crowds in Haiti
Walk the streets of Manhattan with the family members haunted by loss

King of glory fill the earth

March into the palace
Fly into the chambers
Join the conference table
Envelope the kings and queens, the prime ministers, the presidents, the Pope, the muftis

King of glory fill the earth--cover all the nations; touch all the people

That we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness

Egregious works as word of the week

I wrote this last week, but I did some weird little HTML thing that kept it from publishing; so I am not yet sure what will be the word of the week for this week, but it may emerge tonight in the debates.

Egregious ripples off the tongue. It combines a bit of the gutteral with the potential of a rolled "r". I proclaim it my word of the week. And just in time! I found this on James Wiser's blog, and found the contents nothing but deserving of the word of the week. Next week maybe the Democrats will supply something--equal opportunity egregiousness.

from the New York Times
Republicans Admit Mailing Campaign Literature Saying Liberals Will Ban the Bible
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICKPublished: September 24, 2004

The Republican Party acknowledged yesterday sending mass mailings to residents of two states warning that "liberals" seek to ban the Bible. It said the mailings were part of its effort to mobilize religious voters for President Bush.
The mailings include images of the Bible labeled "banned" and of a gay marriage proposal labeled "allowed." A mailing to Arkansas residents warns: "This will be Arkansas if you don't vote." A similar mailing was sent to West Virginians.
A liberal religious group, the Interfaith Alliance, circulated a copy of the Arkansas mailing to reporters yesterday to publicize it. "What they are doing is despicable,'' said Don Parker, a spokesman for the alliance. "They are playing on people's fears and emotions."


In an e-mail message, Christine Iverson, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, confirmed that the party had sent the mailings.
"When the Massachusetts Supreme Court sanctioned same-sex marriage and people in other states realized they could be compelled to recognize those laws, same-sex marriage became an issue,'' Ms. Iverson said. "These same activist judges also want to remove the words 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance."
The mailing is the latest evidence of the emphasis Republicans are putting on motivating conservative Christian voters to vote this fall. But as the appeals become public, they also risk alienating moderate and swing voters.
An editorial on Sept. 22 in The Charleston Gazette in West Virginia, for example, asked, "Holy Moley! Who concocts this gibberish?"
"Most Americans see morality more complexly," the editorial said. "Many think a higher morality is found in Christ's command to help the needy, prevent war and pursue other humanitarian goals. Churchgoers of this sort aren't likely to believe childish allegations that Democrats want to ban the Bible."
In statement, Senator John Edwards, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, said President Bush "should condemn the practice immediately and tell everyone associated with the campaign to never use tactics like this again."
Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, called the mailings an ugly contrast to Mr. Bush's public statements. Although the president has called for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, he often emphasizes the need for tolerance as well.
"The president takes more or less the high road and his henchman and allies on the right have been let loose to conduct these ugly, divisive smear campaigns," Mr. Foreman said. "It is wedge politics at its worst."
In any event, the Bush campaign appears confident about its religious appeal.
The mailing seeks to appeal to conservative evangelical Protestant pastors and political leaders who say they worry that legal rights for same-sex couples could lead to hate-crimes laws that could be applied against sermons of Bible passages criticizing homosexuality.
Conservative Christian political commentators often cite the case of Ake Green, a minister in Sweden who was jailed in June for a month for a sermon denouncing gays as sinful.
Mr. Parker, of the Interfaith Alliance, said, "I think it is laughable to think that someone could be arrested for reading out loud from the Bible.''
But Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, argued, "We have the First Amendment in this country which should protect churches, but there is no question that this is where some people want to go, that reading from the Bible could be hate speech."
Still, Mr. Land questioned the assertion that Democrats might ban the whole Bible. "I wouldn't say it," he said. "I would think that is probably stretching it a bit far."

down, dowdy, and disaffected

Before I publish this post, I must add this preface:
Stop right now and pray for the family and friends of Jack Hensley, so brutally murdered today in Iraq.

"The first thing I want you to do is pray.

Pray in every way you know how,

for everyone you know.

Especially pray for rulers

and their governments to rule well

so we can be quietly about our business of

living simply,

in humble contemplation.

This is the way Savior God wants us to live."

I Timothy 2 The Message

Are you a staunch Republican? A new prosperity independent? How about staunch conservative—that must be more conservative than Republican. Are you a liberal Democrat? These are rhetorical. You don’t have to answer. Try this assessment from the Pew Research Center for People and the Press. My government students have been doing this all day today.

Ideology, partisanship, and elections have been the topic of my classes for the last several days. I attempt to create a climate of civil civic dialogue. My Dad emerged from five generations of Republicans—does the name Herbert give you a clue? And mom? A yellow-dog Roosevelt Democrat. I’ve warned you about her. She’s the one who said she loved Bill Clinton. At a church service no less!

I happen to believe people of good heart and good mind can disagree about policy.

Guess how I came out on the Pew assessment? Disaffected! Hmm. The vitriol of the partisanship this season drives my disaffection. Meanwhile, I feel a moral obligation to educate and not indoctrinate students about politics. So, as much as I work at non-partisanship and at critical thinking, I am feeling---disaffected.

Would you?

A Christian friend put a message in my mailbox which he urges me to share with my friends. So I am. The piece rages over the Communist Party’s deep desire to defeat Bush resulting in an endorsement of John Kerry. One of the alarms sounded is that Kerry’s theme “Let America be America Again” comes from the poet Langston Hughes, who in another poem exalts Marx.

Wonder what drove Langston Hughes to disaffection?

Another fellow Christian sent me an email asking for my reflections on an article that explains how the left bases their reasoning on law whereas the right bases their reasoning on morality, because the left has no moral compass--only secular relativity as a basis. He has asked for my response in a collegial and respectful tone. I want to reply in that manner. This is not a "line by line" response as we sometimes give in debate, but it is response to the tendency of those on the right to assume that all those who see things from a different perspective have no moral or spiritual basis for doing so.

Is there not a place for a thoughtful Christian to see a role for activist government in areas such as healthcare, the environment, and affirmative action? Is questioning the legitimacy of the war in Iraq only a matter of inane legal allegiance to UN? Are abortion and gay rights the only issues moral consequence? Hear another perspective.


Recovering a hijacked faith
By Jim Wallis
July 13, 2004
The Boston Globe

MANY OF US feel that our faith has been stolen, and it's time to take it back. A misrepresentation of Christianity has taken place. Many people around the world now think Christian faith stands for political commitments that are almost the opposite of its true meaning. How did the faith of Jesus come to be known as pro-rich, pro-war, and pro-American? What has happened? How do we get back to a historic, biblical, and genuinely evangelical faith rescued from its contemporary distortions?

That rescue operation is crucial today in the face of a social crisis that cries out for prophetic religion. The problem is clear in the political arena, where strident voices claim to represent Christians when they clearly don't speak for most of us. We hear politicians who love to say how religious they are but fail to apply the values of faith to their leadership and policies.

When we take back our faith, we will discover that faith challenges the powers that be to do justice for the poor instead of preaching a "prosperity gospel" and supporting politicians who further enrich the wealthy. We will remember that faith hates violence and tries to reduce it and exerts a fundamental presumption against war instead of justifying it in God's name. We will see that faith creates community from racial, class, and gender divisions, prefers international community over nationalist religion and that "God bless America" is found nowhere in the Bible. And we will be reminded that faith regards matters such as the sacredness of life and family bonds as so important that they should never be used as ideological symbols or mere political pawns in partisan warfare.

The media like to say, "Oh, then you must be the religious left." No, and the very question is the problem. Just because a religious right has fashioned itself for political power in one predictable ideological guise does not mean those who question this political seduction must be their opposite political counterpart.

The best public contribution of religion is precisely not to be ideologically predictable or a loyal partisan. To always raise the moral issues of human rights, for example, will challenge both left- and right-wing governments who put power above principles. Religious action is rooted in a much deeper place than "rights"-- that being the image of God in every human being.

Similarly, when the poor are defended on moral or religious grounds, it is not "class warfare," as the rich will always charge, but rather a direct response to the overwhelming focus in the Scriptures, which claims they are regularly neglected, exploited, and oppressed by wealthy elites, political rulers, and indifferent affluent populations. Those Scriptures don't simply endorse the social programs of liberals or conservatives but make clear that poverty is indeed a religious issue, and the failure of political leaders to help uplift those in poverty will be judged a moral failing.

It is because religion takes the problem of evil so seriously that it must always be suspicious of too much concentrated power -- politically and economically -- either in totalitarian regimes or in huge multinational corporations that now have more wealth and power than many governments. It is indeed our theology of evil that makes us strong proponents of both political and economic democracy -- not because people are so good but because they often are not and need clear safeguards and strong systems of checks and balances to avoid the dangerous accumulations of power and wealth.

It's why we doubt the goodness of all superpowers and the righteousness of empires in any era, especially when their claims of inspiration and success invoke theology and the name of God. Given human tendencies for self-delusion and deception, is it any wonder that hardly a religious body in the world regards the ethics of unilateral and preemptive war as "just"? Religious wisdom suggests that the more overwhelming the military might, the more dangerous its capacity for self and public deception. Powerful nations dangerously claim to "rid the world of evil" but often do enormous harm in their self-appointed vocation to do so.

The loss of religion's prophetic vocation is dangerous for any society. Who will uphold the dignity of economic and political outcasts? Who will question the self-righteousness of nations and their leaders? Who will question the recourse to violence and rush to wars, long before any last resort has been unequivocally proven? Who will not allow God's name to be used to simply justify ourselves, instead of calling us to accountability?

In an election year, the particular religiosity of a candidate, or even how devout he might be, is less important than how his religious and/or moral commitments and values shape political vision and policy commitments. Understanding the moral compass a candidate brings to his public life and how his convictions shape his political priorities is the true litmus test.

Jim Wallis is convener of Call to Renewal and executive director of Sojourners.

© Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.

between exclusion and embrace

A fair-haired, blue eyed friend, a native of the American Midwest, and one in generally consider an fine Christian lady recently shared with me her concern over immigration. She confided her certainty of the damage that the influx of foreigners are having on America. One of her family members works for a federal agency that funds childcare for an immigrant population in major city. The recipients of the federal aid frequently misuse the funds.

I am always taken a bit aback by the complaints about immigrants to North America from those of English descent. It may seem silly, assimilated as I am to be put off by the irony of it, but I admit I am.

The challenges upon American society to embrace the current wave of immigration include economic and political issues for sure, but the spiritual challenge weighs on my heart today. My limited knowledge of immigration policy leaves me short on suggestions on matters such as amnesty, but the spiritual response to the influx of strangers seems to demand less research.

All of this has been on mind this week as I have been reading a short, but well written book, An 8-track church in a CD world, by Robert N. Nash, Jr. I felt the most compelling passage in the book is his discussion of the church’s desperate need for a theology of “otherness.” He comments on how we have shed the need for welcoming strangers as we mask differences in ethnicity, socio-economic status, and theology by our forming of denominations and congregations. He particularly indicts the American South as having a culture unto itself.

He shares this definition of stranger attributed to Eli Wiesel:

"Someone who suggests the unknown, the prohibited, the beyond; he seduces, he attracts, he wounds—and he leaves…The stranger represents what you are not, what you cannot be, simply because you are not he…The stranger is the other. He is not bound by your laws, by your memories; his language is not yours, nor his silence.”
Elie Wiesel, From the Kingdom of Memory: Reminiscences (New York: Summit Books, 1990) 59f.

Nash points out that in today’s society, strangers watch. Strangers witness the clash in the current divide among traditional and progressive Christians. Nash wonders if the “damaging politics of exclusion” can give way to the embrace of the stranger. He fears that if we can hardly embrace one with whom we disagree about church function or politics, we will never be able welcome the stranger who doesn’t sit in church at all

As I consider about how to respond to my friend, Nash’s quotation from Miroslav Volf, a Croatian and Pentecostal theologian keeps coming to mind:

“Forgiveness is the boundary between exclusion and embrace.”

Dynamite or Spitballs?

Even if I were a communist, which I AM NOT, I would have to say Arnold’s speech inspired me. I showed it to my high school government students.

Even if were a Republican, which I AM NOT, watching the senator from Georgia speak metaphorically, bombastically, but not Prozacly accurately, I would have to say, the experience repulsed me. Any wonder he did not get a ringside seat on Thursday night? Maybe the strategists of the RNC feared a similar response from other independents in places like Ohio. Reports have it that Miller spent Thursday night at home attending to personal business. Maybe he was out somewhere in New Jersey getting ready for a duel with Chris Matthews.

Even if were a Democrat, which I AM NOT, I would have to say that last week left me tense, a bit deflated, and tired of partisan politics. Although I teach government and politics, I feel a need for relief.

If I were a card carrying member of the Napoleon Dynamite Fan Club, and I AM, I would prescribe for all those already tired of the race between W and JFKerry a refreshing alternative:

VOTE for PEDRO for PRESIDENT.

He will make your wildest dreams come true.

If you have not seen Napoleon Dynamite, let me give you a frame of reference. For any Greater Atlanta Christian School friends, Napoleon Dynamite is a Brigham Young University student answer to a Matt Elliott GACS Christmas video. A bunch of smart funny Mormon kids put together a geek makes good story and entered it in the Sundance Film Festival. The rest of the story will be a piece of cinematic history. MTV picked up some of the promotion and these kids have run a grass roots promotion of the cleanest, cutest, and funniest bit of celluloid I have seen for years--and just in time to relieve my experience of Zell Miller's diatribe, Swift-boat Veterans for Truth and Fahrenheit 9-11.

So if you are feeling uninspired repulsed, tired, deflated, or tense, sell your llama and buy a ticket to see Napoleon Dynamite.

Special thanks to my son, Trevor, and his friend, Anna Burns, for introducing me to this film. They have seen at least four times, as have 10,000+ other kids.

"God is not a Republican or a Democrat'"

"It is the responsibility of every political conservative, every evangelical Christian, every pro-life Catholic, every traditional Jew...to get serious about re-electing President Bush." - Jerry Falwell, The New York Times, July 16, 2004

"I think George Bush is going to win in a walk. I really believe I'm hearing from the Lord it's going to be like a blowout election in 2004. The Lord has just blessed him.... It doesn't make any difference what he does, good or bad." - Pat Robertson, AP/Fox News, January 2, 2004

These statements activated Sojourners to put a full-page in today's New York Times. Check out the ad.

Growing up in a home with a Republican dad and a Democrat mom convinced me that there is not just one way to view politics. Folks of good heart and mind can disagree on partisan politics. I am a healthy happy independent who has lived, worked, and worshipped among conservative Republicans for the last 30 years. Sojourners gives voice to many of my concerns.

"Al tikrar biallem il hmar"*

My soul shudders when I see clips on CNN of the midrasas in the far reaches of Pakistan where young children absorb a combination of Islam with a virulent strain of anti-US hatred. The other day I was reflecting on this disturbing aspect of "that culture," when the images from the film with Robin Williams called Toys came to mind. Remember the Christmas-time flick from a few years back which portrayed an intentional military-toy industrial complex conspiracy to train Americans children to kill with video games and other toys? We recoil in horror at the training given to a portion of a generation of Arab-Muslim children, but how much pause do we give the training our young ones receive while playing video games? And to what extent does our media machine inculcate a strain of potentially virulent anti-Arab messages?

I started thinking about an article I once shared with my government classes. U.S. army officer and expert in the psychology of killing, David Grossman, made a case for banning certain video games from mainstream society because they were training kids to kill. The story ran as the Christianity Today cover, August 10, 1998, "Trained to Kill."

I mentioned this to a psychologist friend of mine who immediately poo-pooed this concern, but I hold to it. Just because, thankfully, he and his family don’t train their children to direct the killing skills of these video games to a certain ethnic or religious groups doesn’t mean that these games are not training American kids to be killers. I might add that for all of his family’s loving ways—there are millions who do articulate hatred for a variety of folks—especially those who appear to be among our country’s enemies.

Combine this concern with the one I heard raised last week in a recording of a book signing by Jack G. Shaheen, author of Reel Bad Arabs; How Hollywood Vilifies a People. In a study of 900 films, he tells of “the persistent and prolonged vilification of Arab peoples in mainstream Western movies.” (Okay, so I watch C-Span book reviews...) Shaheen expresses in a most articulate and passionate way his concern over the way slanderous stereotypes Americans have affected honest discourse and public policy." In his opening pages he quotes an *old Arab proverb, Al tikrar biallem il hmar-By repetition even the donkey learns. He decries a century of Hollywood "tutoring movie audiences by repeating over and over, in film after film, insidious images of Arab people."

I wonder--between Disney's Alladin and the evening news-- what images are being repeatedly given to our children of Arabs without any counterbalance? Could this be an unintentional parallel to the midrasas?

What prompted me to write was this weekend's New York Times Magazine story on "The Making of an X Box Warrior". Read it and speak. Is the American media machine from video games to the cinema not training our kids to kill and hate but in our own special way?

Consider this quote:

"Some military experts argue that while it is possible for the games to provide useful training for terrorists, the benefit of some of these games to the Army far outweighs any potential security hazard its theft might pose. ''This is going to give us a bigger edge than it gives to somebody else,'' said William Davis, who heads the lab that created the virtual weapons for the recruitment game America's Army. "

Dowdy days of avocado and peach

Ken and Bev 70s

As the evening sun filtered through the 60s styled stained windows the soft colors dappled over the avocado green carpet and drapes. The mellow baritone voice of Ken Dowdy filled the air.

“You see, I’d like to share my life with you
Show you things I’ve seen
Places that I’m going to, places that I’ve been
To have you there beside, never be alone
And all the time that you’re with me
We would be at home”
(Song by John Denver)

“I’ll love you forever and forever
Love you with all my heart
Love you whenever we’re together
Love you when we’re apart…
Sing it loud so I can hear you
Make it easy to be near you
For the things you do endear you to me
Oh, you know I will, I will."
(Song by the Beatles)

The congregation sang.

For the beauty of the earth
For the beauty of the skies
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies
Lord of all to thee we raise
This our sacrifice of praise.

The girls in apricot and the guys in beige tuxedoes with apricot ruffled shirts stood up with us, sang to us, sang with us, and prayed with us. The parents, sans my Daddy who would have loved Ken Dowdy, blessed us. Our friends and family celebrated with food and fun for hours.

The fashion police and the music critics might cringe at a reprise of that wedding of 30 years ago, but there is nothing in this world I would trade for all the Dowdy days I have reveled in Ken’s love.

30th Anniversary 

This is what 30 years of marriage can get you. 

Q's Questions

"Q" , a young woman, studies theology at Harding Graduate School of Religion. She blogs earnestly, asking heartfelt questions. She recently explored that ever sensitive territory of the Bible, God, and women. Sometimes, it is hard to describe how it feels to be a woman reading the Bible. There are moments that one wonders why God bothered to make women with minds and voices and then let them get educations. Q ventures some of these concerns on July 23 in a discussion about what she refers to as an invisible male bias in society. Here's my response:


There is more than one thing at work here. You identified what you consider invisible. My perception varies. What remains visible really is the power of the masculine. It screams at us from the images from Arab-Muslim nations and whispers to us in the contemporary church. As to the latter, lean in close and sense this simple representation of male privilege—presented with no malice, but because “it’s just the way things are” from James Wiser, a blogger you may appreciate. The blog brings to the table an announcement of a special day of encouragement designed for ministers and their wives sponsored by a Christian university.

Visible and disturbing in a visceral way is the crushing domination of women in many Arab Muslim communities. Veiled, silent, and subject even to point of socially sanctioned honor killings, these women live in a world I have to see as much like the world Jesus came into.

Now to the invisible. Imagine Jesus today in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, or Iran with an entourage of women talking theology. Think of Mary, with her spirit and mind as well the uniqueness of her female anatomic capacity, encountering Gabriel, trysting with the Holy Spirit, and experiencing the inner affirmation in her meeting with the expecting Elizabeth. Relish these encounters with the divine. Between us girls, the friendship of Jesus with Mary and Martha and the other women and baptism into Christ thrills me more than the circumcision deal the guys got before the new covenant. From my eye of faith, the appearance of Jesus to his followers, both male and female, and the partnership of Paul with women in the gospel supercede the problems, large as they loom, with roles in the burgeoning movement.

Cable televsion beams the ancient order of male authority so starkly that I am now thoroughly convinced of the fallacy of putting a literal contemporary application on some of Paul’s teachings. What is visible, Q, is this: we, women in the milieu of Churches of Christ, attend and work in groups of Christians who have utterly inconsistent, even schizophrenic applications of some scripture. This is not true for all folks who take God’s word for God’s word, but it is true for many. You live with this don’t you? As hard as it is in the meetinghouse, don’t miss the invisible reality of Christ and his vibrant, radical relationship with women for visibly weak attempts to appropriate the treasures of his will. And don’t quit asking questions, Q.

Spitting in the ocean

As genocide raged in Rwanda and the rest of the world "dithered" Carl Wilkens stayed and saved as many lives as he could. Today, Nicholas Kristof's column poses the question,  "So, what would you do if, like Carl Wilkens, you were caught in the middle of genocide?"

Carl Wilken's story parallels the story of a Moravian missionary Samuel A. Worcester of Worcester v. Georgia fame. In the early 1800s this missionary took the cause of the Cherokees of Georgia all the way to U.S. Supreme Court. The court ruled in favor of the Cherokees, but Andrew Jackson, the hero of the common man in America, said that if Chief Justice John Marshall had an army, he can enforce his decision. The fate of the Cherokees fell to the Commander in Chief in the end, and the result was the tragic removal of the Cherokees to Indian Territory. But what did Worcester do? He walked the Trail of Tears with them and made his home in Indian Territory.

According to Kristof,  Wilkens sent his family home, and all other missionaries left.  "Of course, Mr. Wilkens managed to save only a tiny number of Tutsi in Kigali, and Americans sometimes ask if his work wasn't like spitting into the ocean. That's true, he acknowledged, adding, "But for the people you help, it's pretty significant."

So we know what what Worcester and Wilkins did. What would WWBevDo?

 

Trevor composing 

Band Parents-"Kendred" spirits

Riffs, breakdowns, CDs $5.00 for 5 songs. Black hair, blue hair, $7.00 for 5 bands.
We are band parents, but not the regular kind.

Many East Cobb and North Fulton parents support their children's bands, but usually they are large marching bands with semi-trailer trucks carrying brass, wind, and percussion. These bands perform on football fields at half-time and in parades at Thanksgiving. Band parents I know spend countless hours raising funds--working concessions, organizing grapefruit sales, distributing chocolate bars. A myriad of projects advance their offsprings' musical passion. Marching bands command committment and achieve accolades.

We are band parents, but for an indie rock band. Indie rock kids perform in venues created from empty strip mall storefronts, community centers, church youth centers, and old factories converted into clubs. One time our son Trevor's band played on a trailer of a semi parked in the back of a church youth center. Indie rock band parents I know haul merchandise "merch" to shows--t-shirts, CDs, stickers, patches, and buttons. They bring lamps to set up in the back of dark rooms so kids can find a dollar for 2 buttons and patch with the bands name on it. Indie rock bands demand commitment and achieve accolades.


My son, Trevor Taylor Dowdy, played with Two Week Notice during his four years of high school. During that time, we went to every show that we could, experiencing a dimension of life we consider priceless. Frankly, indie rock kids can look anywhere from simply thrift store to--well, to the uninitiated band parent, downright frightening. For all of the ferocious dress, among the indie rock kids we persistently find gentle, intelligent, and thoughtful young artists. Many express profound faith in Christ and spend their lives serving Him.

Trevor, delights us with the love for Jesus he holds in his heart. He inspires us with his determination to create and innovate musically. He honors us by sharing the songs he writes day by day. Trevor warms our hearts with his love for his friends. Trevor pleases us with his perceptions about human nature and character. Trevor calms us with his careful driving and firm decision to avoid alcohol and other drugs. He encourages us by making us welcome with a hugs and introductions when we show up at his indie rock shows.

We treasure our time spent with Two Week Notice--Loryn Snell, Hudson and Abigal Philips, Andy Lee, and their kind and dedicated indie rock band parents. We miss seeing them at shows, maybe in somewhat the same way regular band parents miss the excitement of half-time shows and competitions. We remain grateful that Two Week Notice was not so independent that they wouldn't let us have a once in lifetime shot at being band parents.

Last night we went to hear Parksideview, a rocking indie band from Peachtree City that Trevor joined this spring. Ken and I renewed our acquaintance with Jen, a friend we met through Two Week Notice, and met a few new kids. We met Daniel Davidson of Norma Jean who touched us with his gentle spirit. While a young band waled out electronic experiments in the background we shared his enthusiasm for what he saw on his European tour and for old photos. Best of all, we observed his commitment to living and making music to honor Jesus. As parents, we felt a certain peace knowing our son meets guys like this in his indie rock world. So a little shout out to Daniel. Thanks for being open to us.

Tommorow Trevor and Parksideview--Jeff and Jake Turner, and Bobby Kyser pack up the merch box and go on tour sans parents. I am grateful for the Turners and Kysers and grateful for their kids. Quirky band parent facts: Two Week Notice dads were all ministers. Two of them are named Ken. Parksideview dads are all named Ken! Join us as we pray for their tour to bring glory to God, to provide great entertainment, and to be SAFE. We have to include the SAFE part, because We are PARENTS--the regular kind.

Kristof--a voice of reason

Nicholas Kristof speaks to me. I love to read his column in the NYTimes because he is pretty liberal, but he's--well--kind. I hope he doesn't mind that description, because it may sound very unjournalistic not to be described as bombastic, scathing, cynical, or strident. But in the national media, it's refreshing to read someone intelligent, analytical, but kind. He has spent a good bit of time this year writing on the sex trade in the Far East. While "on location" he ran into some International Justice Mission types, and seemed touched by their comittment. He said something nice about evangelicals.This shows he is not only kind, but courageous. Today he weighed in on the Micheal Moore phenomena. He broaches the Bush as liar rhetoric like this:

"A consensus is emerging on the left that Mr. Bush is fundamentally dishonest, perhaps even evil — a nut, yes, but mostly a liar and a schemer. That view is at the heart of Michael Moore's scathing new documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11."

In the 1990's, nothing made conservatives look more petty and simple-minded than their demonization of Bill and Hillary Clinton, who were even accused of spending their spare time killing Vince Foster and others. Mr. Clinton, in other words, left the right wing addled. Now Mr. Bush is doing the same to the left. For example, Mr. Moore hints that the real reason Mr. Bush invaded Afghanistan was to give his cronies a chance to profit by building an oil pipeline there.

"I'm just raising what I think is a legitimate question," Mr. Moore told me, a touch defensively, adding, "I'm just posing a question."

Right. And right-wing nuts were "just posing a question" about whether Mr. Clinton was a serial killer.

I'm against the "liar" label for two reasons. First, it further polarizes the political cesspool, and this polarization is making America increasingly difficult to govern. Second, insults and rage impede understanding."

Kristof values understanding. Kristof, kind and courageous.
His writing raises hard questions, but I'm sorry, it just has a kind tone to it. Robert Coles (Pulitizer Prize winner who wrote the Moral Intelligence of Children) distills the meaning of morality as basic kindness. So hats off to a liberal with MORALS. Fancy that.

I dont' know how to do links yet, so here's the URL for Kristof today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/30/opinion/30KRIS.html?pagewanted=print&position=

Zach Blair's skin; Bev Blair's heart

Today Zac Blair, Bev and Bob's gorgeous 20-something ministerial student son, goes under the surgeon's knife. The doctors will excise two lymph nodes and some more skin to check for cancer cells. It seems to me that Zac ought to just be off at Camp Shiloh in upstate New York working with inner city kids in the name of Jesus. Seems that way to Zac, Bev, and Bob, too. 

Five years ago on the Friday before Labor Day, Bev called me to say she was starting chemotherapy in the next morning for chronic myelogic leukemia. My husband Ken bought me an airline ticket, and I was there on Saturday morning when the nurse brought that first dose. Hundreds of people prayed for month after month for Bev's recovery from leukemia. After more than a year of frustration and unsatisfactory treatment options, she was able to be part of a "mercy trial" for Gleevec, a new drug that targets only the cancer cells. Last check, the oncologists can't find a red blood cell that tests positive for the disease.

So today, we hit the knee for Zac's skin and Bev and Bob's hearts. May God grant good health and inexplicable peace.

Bev, I wish that could be sitting in that waiting room with you.

Can we talk?

Over the utlimate suburban lunch at LaMadelines, she asked for help in reconciling her feelings about the discussions of politics at church. We attend a 90% white congregation in an affluent suburb of Atlanta. She is African-American married to a white man. She and the other black members at our congregation frequently feel offense at the presumption that all God-loving members of the flock vote Republican, love George Bush, resent (maybe even hate?) Bill Clinton, enjoy Rush Limbaugh and admire Sean Hannity. She expressed great concern about the morality of the abortion issue and gay rights, but feels that there are other issues with moral import---care for the sick, the poor, along with stewardship of the environment. So here's the discussion I would like to have. Are there some guidelines or suggestions we can make at our various congregations as this election approaches that will increase the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace, and minimize the divisiveness of politics? I believe it is safe to assume that the Republican party will be organized to mobilize voters even at the congregational level. What will the leaders of our congregations do?

Walgreen Caribean blues

Blue eyes like the blue in the Caribbean Sea. She checks you out a Walgreens. Maybe you didn't notice her eyes because, like me, you are in a hurry. You grab the pack of gum, magazine, and bottle of lotion and head back to the car. But next time, when she checks you out, look at her for a second and tell her to have a good day. Maybe you could even strike up a short conversation if there isn't a long line. Say something about the weather in these parts and you will find out, she didn't grow up here. Maybe you could even sneak in a invitation to church. If nothing else, just a moment of warmth that conveys that you see her humanity and her worth. As you go out the door, say a prayer for her.

She might be my cousin. My beautiful cousin with Caribbean blue eyes. I saw her a few weeks ago, and asked what work she was doing. Her blue eyes turned bleary, her voice quivered and she replied with something like 'I'm just a cashier at Walgreen's. I'm just a dummy with a worthless job.' All the whys and hows that lead to that response hold a lifetime of hurts. When I think of the pain that little girl-grown woman's heart has held, it makes me a little short of breath. I feel something like physical pain in my chest. At the moment she said it, there were no words to fix it. There are no words now. But there is the Father. There is Jesus. There is the Holy Spirit. And there you are. Here I am. Maybe today when I see her, when you see her, we can ask on her behalf that she feel the love of the Father, the comfort of the Spirit, and redemption of the Son. We can look her in the eye, recognize her humanity and speak to her.

best friend

She's my best friend.
She's Beverly Birdwell Blair.
We were best friends when we were two years old. We were best friends before I remember being best friends. I cannot remember a time in my life when I did not know her.

I don't know how many Beverlys there are in the world, but in Warren, Michigan in the 1950s, I think maybe we were the only ones.

We met regularly in the basement of the ugliest church building in Warren, Michigan.Our families attended the Van Dyke Church of Christ on Nine Mile Road. Most of the other church buildings were Catholic or Lutheran, which were quite beautiful. The Van Dyke Baptist Church was really only prettier because they had a neon cross that beamed "Jesus Saves". The Van Dyke Church of Christ building with its red brick,flat roof, and beige linoleum with little brown streaks, sat next to the Sportman's Alibi Bar. We played tag on the lawn between the church and the bar, and the side of the bar was "goul." For those of you who did not grow up on the east side of Detroit, "goul" is the equivalent of "base" for hide and seek and tag.

Oh yes, we sat next to each other in bible class and in worship services in theater seats. Theater seats. I am not sure why we had theater seats,instead of pews, but I think it had something to do with being neither "Catholic, Protestant, nor Jew." Without fail, Beverly and Beverly were there every Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night of our young lives, unless we were properly "providentially hindered."

Miss Maude Hall taught our pre-school Sunday School Class in, well, it was the ladies' bathroom. There we were, in the depths of the building, part of the Motor City, singing "This little Christian Light of Mine." The teacher was trying to teach us the song. We got through the "hide it under a bushel, NO!" verse, then the "don't let Satan pouf it" part and then came the last verse. Maude sang, "All around the neighborhood, I'm gonna let it shine." I remember Beverly Birdwell said, "No, no, no teacher! It's 'all around Gaineboro Road' I'm gonna let it shine." Gaineboro, was Beverly Birdwell's parent's hometown, way down in Jackson County Tennessee.

That architecturally challenged building housed a spiritual and cultural experience born from the poorest and richest of the South. Many of the South's poorest people came to work in those shops in and around Detroit, but for what our families lacked in money, they possessed an abundance of love.

Beverly and I grew up in and around and through that strange structure, that Van Dyke Church of Christ. Most of our visits to each other's homes began at the church building. We played house, pioneers, school, and church. In pretend church we preached and lead singing, but not in real church. We memorized our Bible verses and filled out our "Gospel Treasures" Sunday school lessons, on January 5, 1964, we were both baptized into Christ.

The two Beverlys dated the same boys, but never at the same time. We traveled from Detroit to Tennessee to Paris together. We traveled from the 50s to through the 60s together. We sat in those theater seats while the men of the church prayed for our security during the Cuban Missile Crisis. We rode together home from chorus practice in Detroit the night Martin Luther King was assassinated, sad and frightened. We watched the smoke rising from Detroit during riots and waved at the National Guard in full battle regalia patrol our neighborhoods. We traveled together from childhood to womanhood sharing secrets in the stairwells of the church building.

Incidentally, in 1966 our Dads and the other deacons worked together to provide a new Van Dyke Church building with pews and stained glass.

On a chilly Michigan fall in November of 1970, our senior year, Bev sat by my side while we heard that my Dad died from a heart attack. We began our grown up journey of faith. The next fall we were at separate universities and began our adult lives apart. Since then we have both married, born sons, and buried Beverly's dad.

That Van Dyke Church of Christ experience, with of its theological, cultural, and architectural eccentricities, besides introducing us to Jesus gave us the experience of being best friends IN JESUS. Beverly let her little shine all around Gainesboro Road when she visited her cousins in the summers, all around Centerline High when she excelled in all academics and student leadership, and all around Abilene Christian University and Central Michigan University. Now she shines all around the schools where she teaches special education, all around her home where loves and nurtures four of the world's best looking men, and all around my life where, though time and space keep us at a distance, she remains my best friend.

Now, I hope I have made up for leaving her name out of my blog on a cappella music.

"Patriotism is the certain death of Christianity"

If he had been born a few years earlier he would have been in Hitler's Youth. A young school-aged child, he and his single mother dodged Allied bombs in a besieged Berlin. She ended up in the brutal fray of the fallen capital, ravaged by Russian soldiers. Mother and son survived on potato peelings and hope, and finally escaped from a Russian detention camp. As the buildings cooled and survivors picked through the rubble of their lives and their city, the Allies arranged the joint occupation of Berlin. Determined missionaries from the Church of Christ, part of the Stone-Campbell restoration movement, led by a deeply loved preacher, Otis Gatewood, reached the young mother with a simple gospel message. Sometime after her baptism, she met and married an American G.I. The couple returned to the states, bringing the young man to complete his education in America.

Enthusiasm for history and social issues characterized this young man as he grew. I met him when he was an undergraduate at a Christian college. He married my next-door neighbor, and became a secondary social studies teacher. Two indelible impressions from him informed my political socialization and to a certain extent influenced my approach to Christian thought. First, he taught me the word "ethnocentrism" when I was ten years old, clearly showing its insidious nature. Secondly, he had a small sheet of paper posted above his desk that bore these words, "Patriotism is the certain death of Christianity."

To an American evangelical in these early days of the millennium, the first idea may not be a cause for alarm, but the latter may smack of something sinister. Post 9/11, even the baby boomers disillusioned by Vietnam found their way to Wal-Mart to buy an American flag. I know I cut an American flag out of the Atlanta Journal Constitution on 9/12, laminated it, and hung it on my classroom wall. It hangs there today. 9/11 and many other factors have lead to an increasingly close relationship between evangelical Christianity and patriotism. This tie, strenghthened by radio talk shows, websites, interest groups, and a secular news network confirming its leanings, alarms me. My experience today raised concern.

First, the AJC reported that the National Association of Evangelicals is "mulling over guidelines that would warn the faithful against allying themselves too closely with any one political party, 'lest nonbelievers think that the Christian faith is essentially political in nature." The mulling over process is a start.

Next, only a few pages over, the AJC ran a story headlined "Christian 'exodus’ to S.C. planned-Texan envisions state free of liberal meddling". Determined to stop the federal government from "imposing what he considers its liberal will, he wants South Carolina to secede." This fellow wants to get 12,000 Christians to move to South Carolina in order to take over the state government and enact a set of laws friendly to his political ideology, which he bases on his interpretation of scripture. It brought some relief to read that the conservative speaker of the State House in South Carolina and a spokesman from Bob Jones University both panned the idea. Nonetheless, 600 folks have signed up. According to the AJC, he's been given some positive press from conservative talk show personalities and websites.

Today I sat in a class of teachers preparing to teach Advanced Placement Comparative Politics and Government. I wish some of my precious Christian friends could hear the perceptions they have of Christians. These perceptions come directly from the stridency and partisanship of the current political climate. It hit me as ironic when the distinguished professor came to a brief discussion of "the functions of ideology". One such function, political scientists assert, is to give one the ability to get along---to be socially accepted. My understanding of the Word is that our spiritual kinship in Jesus makes us one of the bunch. However, the climate today among my believing friends is so partisan and nationalistic, that some look askance if you indicate that you question the current administration's policies. Some believers assume that their interpretation of politics is so right and righteous, that they bring to the assembly of Christians political statements, both serious ones and others they consider funny. For example, just this past Sunday, one of my dearest friends and a brother in Christ asked, in an organized Bible study setting, “So, who is going to buy Bill Clinton’s book this week?” His tone was intentionally pejorative.

My over “three score and ten” mother, a Roosevelt Democrat, replied, “I plan to buy the book; I love Bill Clinton.” The group fell completely silent, and the teacher dropped the topic. Oops. Political ideology did not function to make her part of the group.

What is a person possessing a different political persuasion to do? Counter partisan political remarks, therefore sounding argumentative, or sit silently in order to keep peace? Keeping silent on political remarks to keep the peace may have a biblical basis. This could be an equal opportunity silence. Presuming partisanship and demanding a form of patriotism is not the ideology Christ declared would bring us together.

The NAE indicates that it wants its members to avoid the excesses of nationalism, but encourages “maintaining a commitment to religious freedom at home and abroad and opposition to some specified social evils---alcohol, drugs, abortion, and stem-cell research.” Profound problems and debates surround the issues listed, but even the comments of this disclaimer make it no wonder "nonbelievers think that Christianity may be essentially political in nature."

What if the NAE said, "Let's avoid the excesses of nationalism and concentrate instead on making disciples, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and otherwise helping the poor--especially single mothers and fatherless children. Let's be known for healing the sick, welcoming immigrants to our community, and spending time with prostitutes, drug addicts, and other social misfits. Let's count it a joy if the state persecutes us for the sake of the faith and, by all means, let us be peacemakers." Some believers might look askance and even decide they better join the exodus to South Carolina.

Sadly,the nonbelieving public hears exponentially more about evangelical views on a political issues than they do about the many good works done, but this statement by the NAE confirms, it is not just the liberal media waylaying the message.Evangelicals and other conservative Christians need to own up to their part in obscuring the core of the gospel to nonbelievers, and by their presumption, creating wedges between members of the Christian community.

“Patriotism is the certain death of Christianity.” This statement is extremist, even outrageous to us, but the warning appeared on my neighbor's wall as a legacy of national spirit gone wrong. Certainly, thoughtful civic concern and action will not hammer a nail in the coffin of Christianity, but speaking and acting in such a way that the greater society mistakes the nature of the kingdom, seems worthy of at least a surgeon general's warning.

The a cappella stage--screen memories from a Campbellite dreamer

I grew up between 8 Mile and 9 Mile in suburban Detroit. Strangely, I lived in a neighborhood with about seven households who worshipped with the Church of Christ. In case you are not familiar with the Church of Christ, most congregations of this “tribe” worship a cappella. Other than those seven households, there was one Lutheran family, and EVERYONE else I knew was Catholic. After I got out of high school, I met a Presbyterian.

My senior year in high school, our congregation was in a period of what seemed to me spiritual vigor, and my best friend, Beverly Birdwell Blair and I happily invited our public school friends to worship. When a handful of Catholic friends showed up, my anxiety spiked, especially when I thought about the singing. After all, it was Sunday night. The crowd boasted the usual ½ of Sunday morning, and the song leader, well, no boasting there. If I recall, possible selections, sweet and meaningful to me, consisted mostly of “gospel music” of which, I have heard critics assert, was “not really gospel and not music either.” I held my breath momentarily when the singing started. What would our friends think? They, accustomed to the majestic organ of St. Mark’s Catholic Church. In spite of the small crowd, teenaged song leader, and less than elegant music, we truly sensed a sweet spirit in the place. Heartfelt prayers and sermon uttered by men with Jackson County Tennessee accents, provided an audio and spiritual feast for our Polish and Italian pals.

Afterwards I felt rather sheepish about my trepidation. My friends’ response was so warm and reflective. They marveled at the sincerity, spontaneity, and the laity of it all.

I saw it as a treasure.

For weeks before my wedding, thirty years ago this August, I had a recurring bad dream. The dream always took place at the church. I stood in the second floor nursery, looking down from the enormous window up there, over the ceremony. The music turned out to be bizarre in some way. I don't know if what made it bizarre was the avocado green carpet and curtain, but an analyst might find at the root some psychospiritual infantile experience of singing a hymn along with an instrument and later hearing from church members the eternal danger of anything but a cappella. Adding to the psychological damage might have been the hermeneutics double-bind created by being told to obey all kinds of Old Testament examples, but to avoid at the possible cost of hell, clapping or use of the harp, lyre, and cymbal.

No interpretation of dreams took place, but I must admit, in my most conscious state, to experiencing waves of anxiety about the effect of the a cappella music on my wedding guests who came from very different traditions.

The guest I worried the most about, was Mrs. Dorsett. Mrs. Dorsett, in her early eighties, played the organ for a large Presbyterian Church in Detroit. She was an extraordinary music teacher. Among her credits, back in the late 30s and early 40s she was an adjunct music professor at Harding university who taught diction to none other than Dr. Kenneth “Uncle Bud” Davis. I do believe the factor of being a Presbyterian teaching at what was then a small church of Christ related college is the reason for the adjunct in her title.

As we contemplated the music for the ceremony, we would think of this fellow or that fellow who might perform, but each one we would consider, we would say, “No, he’s in the wedding.” After saying this six times we decided to have the groomsmen sing. Each of them had been vocal performers in colleges with a strong tradition of great a cappella music. For the bridesmaids’ processional they sang “O God our Help in Ages Past” and for the bride (me!) they sang “God of Our Fathers.”

Weeks later Ken and I went to visit Mrs. Dorsett, music teacher and organist extraordinaire who asked us in a most formal tone and her Michigan accent, “By the way, where did you find that ‘mah-vel-ous' ensemble to perform for your wedding?” She could hear better than she could see.

These two experiences lightened my load of self-consciousness about our tradition of a cappella singing, opening my eyes to the unique beauty of it. Knowing spirit-filled folks from many communions and hearing great Bible teaching released me to enjoy many other expressions of music in worship. I think the more we outgrow self-consciousness and the need to make our identity by boundary markers from other believers, the more we can confidently revel in the wonder of worship.

Prince Albert goes to war

Today every flag in America is flying at half-mast in of honor the Gipper, former President Ronald Reagan, a tribute fitting, of course, for a man who for eight years held the presidency of the world's most powerful nation. But each time I rode by a flag today, I pretended it was also at half-mast for my mother's last living sibling, Uncle Bill. We attended his memorial service at a small funeral home chapel in North Little Rock, Arkansas.

My grandpa, Uncle Bill's father, born in 1869 and named Prince Albert, passed this distinguished name on to his son. These men were not named for the tobacco, but for the actual prince, the husband of Queen Victoria. So my mother's brother, born in Dardenelle, Arkansas in 1922, became the ninth of ten children in a early 20th century yours, mine, and ours blend. Unlike most of the late 20th century blended families, this family was engineered by a combination of natural disaster and a sense of biblical responsibility. Lettie Brown Johnson Evans lost her first husband, Dimmit Evans, in the Flu Epidemic of 1918. Reminiscent of the kinsman redeemers of the Israelites, Lettie Brown Johnson Evans, Uncle Bill's mother, was rescued from her lonely state by Dimmit's widowed older brother, the aforementioned Prince Albert Evans.

So when did Prince Albert become Bill? Nicknames evolved in the Evans family somewhat like they did in the Cherokee community where my dad grew up. Traits observed in children led the elders to assign them a name. Toddling Prince Albert moved at a pretty quick pace. I am sure all babies seemed pretty quick moving to Prince Albert, the father, seeing as he was in his late fifties already! At any rate, Prince Albert, the toddler, was dubbed, "Wild Bill."

My mom, Emma Jo Evans Choate, can recount many stories about the rough and tumble days of their Arkansas youth, but the innocence of that youth was cut short by the call of Pearl Harbor. When Prince Albert the younger signed up with Uncle Sam, he signed in as Bill Evans and no questions were asked. He went to war with the hundreds of thousands of others of his generation and survived the horrors of the South Pacific theater including Okinawa and the Philippines.

Bill came home in 1945 and the burdens of being Wild Bill, Private Bill, husband Bill, and father Bill challenged his being. There was warfare for his soul, and for many years he wandered through the maze of life without committment to the LORD. I remember my mom, his baby sis, praying aloud EVERY night of my life, "Lord, please, help Bill to know that the best thing in life is pure and undefiled religion before you." My mom tended to utter certain prayers in King James English. Note: King James of England preceeded Prince Albert and Victoria by about 250 years.

So, through the 50s she prayed. In the 60s she prayed. Today my cousin J.D. Cash, eulogized Uncle Bill, saying that Uncle Bill's baptism in the 60s was a start, but Uncle Bill's life lacked the peace and the practice that one might want for his life in Christ. Mom still prayed that same prayer all through my high school years.

It was in 70s that Uncle Bill began demonstrating the new life of the spirit he had been granted. He finally put on the full armor of God.He repented publicly of his his ways. He gave up destructive habits. He began to worship with Christians. He renewed his devotion to his immediate family and to his extended family. Over the last thirty years, after the untimely death of his son, he took great care of his grandaughter. He provided heroic care for his wife, and for his widowed sisters in their old age. He repaired their cars and cut their grass. Uncle Bill drove them to doctor's appointments. In their later years, he feed them lunch at the nursing home and packed up their houses when they passed away.

So Toddling Prince Albert became Wild Bill. Wild Bill became Private Bill. Bill Evans became grown-up citizen, husband, and father. He struggled. He missed many years of blessings.But he became a New Creature. Through many "dangers, toils, and snares" by God's grace,he showed himself one who understood "true religion." He kept himself "unspotted from the world and cared for widows and orphans in their affliction."

This week, the world says goodbye to a popular US president. Today, our family said goodbye to a prince, not just in name, but in reality. He lost some battles, but by the grace of God, he won the war. A child of the King. Prince Bill.

pottery barn policy

Bob Woodward, in Plan of Attack, recounts a conversation between Powell and the President in the run up to the war in which Powell prods the president to take into consideration the necessity of owning potential problems in Iraq. Powell told the president, "You break it; you own it." Once Plan of Attack hit the bookstands, the episode and expression were repeatedly broadcast. Pottery Barn, offended by the association, publicly defended their company's consumer friendly culture by stating clearly there is NO SUCH policy at the Pottery Barn.

Terry Gross recalled hearing Tom Friedman, New York Times Pulitzer Prize winning columnist, use that expression on her show and reading it in his column multiple times before the invasion of Iraq. Friedman, in an interview broadcast today with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air, explained. Friedman used the expression in a conversation with Richard Armitage, who used it in a conversation with Powell. Powell repeated it to the president, unaware of origins of the expression or the customer service policies of the Pottery Barn. Bob Woodward records it for posterity.

Powell explained the whole story last week on Larry King live. Friedman joked that no one was particularly concerned with the origins of the expression until Pottery Barn showed their ire.

So is this a little parable?