The Police Concert
@ the Coliseum

My wife and I joined about 1,000,000 other people last night to fill up the Coliseum to hear The Police in their one NoCal stop on their world tour. I've never seen that many people at the Coliseum - I think that there were more of them than blades of grass on the ball field. The music was good. Of course I must admit that I was nervous watching the crowds near us on the 3rd balcony dance throughout the concert - in particular after the many beers that were drunk throughout the evening heat. I kept having psychotic visions of jumpers pitching themselves off the side in the midst of their gyrating 80s dance moves. We could see stick figures on the distant stage and thanks to the screens alongside could verify that the guys dancing around playing the bass in a white shirt and black pants was indeed Sting (well I'm at least 99% sure it was). They did 3 encores before quickly exiting in an idling car directly behind the stage in Center Field (the birdseye view of our nose bleeder seats blessed up with that privelege). We then proceeded to fight the masses either pushing their way through the crowd seeking to enter the few BART trains or smoking bowls as they waited for the train leaving Pleasanton at that moment. Anyway it was fun - Every Breath you Take was the penultimate song of the last encore...I guessed they saved their most popular till last. I'm still wondering today how much they made on the 9 x 10 to the 10th power beers that they sold throughout the concert for $10 a shot. Been searching today for a bootleg video on youtube of the concert and throughout the blogosphere - all to no avail. So I'll leave you with my favorite Police song video - "Walking In Your Footsteps"

SPEEDBUMPS

Improving the Hood

one pile of asphalt at a time

If you live in the Dimond/Laurel Districts of Oakland or attend the Fruitvale Presbyterian Church, the faith community I serve as pastor, you may have noticed some recent construction and changes. On Rhoda Ave. (near the church) the city of Oakland added some speed bumps last week. Check out the photos if you like. Arthur White, a neighbor of our church, and the ringleader for the Rhoda Ave. Neighborhood Watch Group that meets regularly in our church space succeeded in a communal block effort to get some speedbumps on their block of Rhoda in order to slow things down. Kudos to him and everyone who worked for so long! Who would have thought that it would take nearly 2 years to get two street-width piles of striped asphalt installed. Thanks for the perseverance and good humor! Plus it looks great!

Indigo Girls
The Concert
The Day After

So I've talked a lot about this concert. I have to at least report back. Great music. Good crowd....Amy and Emily almost didn't need to show up except to play the guitars...the crowds sang loud enough. They did an old one I haven't hear for a while, "The Power of Two" so thought I'd share it with you. Poignant lyrics and great music.

Lectionary Texts for Sunday, June 17

A Parable of Grace

Faith-Love-Salvation-Peace

The Bible passages for next Sunday, June 17th are

Psalm 5:1-8
1 Kings 21:1-21
Galatians 2:15-21
Luke 7:36-8:3

I'm focusing on Psalm 5 and Luke 7/8 at our church.

Reflecting on them this morning I'm struck by the themes: listening, pleading our case, counting on God's justice, love and faith, grace and salvation, hospitality and grace, forgiveness and love, hearing and speaking to oneself.

The Psalm is a prayer poem, asking for God to not forget the poet who is pleading his case. Surrounded by ennemies, badmouthing and threatening him, the poet is counting on God's justice, and hoping that God is in heaven, that God is just, that God hears our prayers and that God is due time will return a gracious answer of peace and deliverance.

The gospel lesson is about the woman who comes and washes the feet of Jesus with her tears and hair, and the parable Jesus then tells to the folks sitting at the table horrified by this woman's scandalous actions and Jesus un-prophetic or un-professional way of responding to her.

Jesus is invited to a meal by an at-first un-named Pharisee Simon, undoubtedly eager to learn more by having a tete-a-tete with the great teacher to discuss his questions. He invites his friends to join the celebration. While they eat an un-named lady enters the house, sits behind Jesus and starts washing and cleaning his feet (what Simon or his servants should have done to welcome the special dinner guest) with her tears, hair and ointment in an expensive alabaster jar. Only women of the street would most likely carry such ointment around for professional use. And everyone at the dinner party seems to not only know who she is but what she does. They mutter to themselves their disapproval and disappointment in Jesus who seemed to be a prophet, but must not be since he's too dense to realize what's happening and who this woman is and then to let her touch him in public. Prophets are always in control of what's happening, not victims of circumstance.

Ironically Jesus responds to the muttering and negativity with a parable story, told to Simon and his friends, although Jesus seems to be looking at the woman. It's meant not for her but for them. Both debtors are in debt to the creditor. It's the creditor who takes the initative, pardonning both debts, giving new life to both of his own free accord. So who then will, or should, be the most grateful?

Do they get it? Jesus asks Simon some interpretive questions, seeking to open his eyes to the transformative meaning of the parable - all of us are debtors, equally wether we think we're more reighteous, more equal, more pure, more "good" than others, or not. For those of Jesus' day it was about keeping the law of God without failure, about what you did (prostitutes and tax collectors weren't in the 'in' crowd). Righteousness, or favor from God, was often about race, gender, ethnicity and socio-economic status. Jesus challenges such stereotypes about who is "in" with God and who is "out." I think Simon got the parable, the implication that he too was a debtor before God just like the woman, just like all of us. But his dinner guests....seems to be another story.

Jesus pushes their buttons by saying that the woman's debts (sins) are forgiven because of her love and faith. WHAT? Only God can do that. Who is this uppity carpenter turned teacher from Nazareth, they most likely mutter to themselves. I find myself wondering....WHAT? I thought that the Biblical vision of Salvation was about Grace...a gift freely given by God, by faith alone. Jesus seems to imply that the woman is saved, forgiven, made new because of her actions....that she earned God's love.

Like all of the gospel - it has a message inviting a transforming response to the original hearers (destinatairs) of the word, to the early church for which the gospels were written down, and then also for us today. How is it that the parable is opening my eyes - our eyes - to the way that we treat others, the way that we might assume that we are more loved by God, or even more worthy of God's love - of who is in the "in" crowd and who is "outside?" Maybe our actions are more important than we seem to admit in our Reformed tradition...maybe her faith was already present well before she came to the house (why else would she seek out Jesus like she did, ready with the ointment, tears on the verge of flowing?) So maybe in a sense her actions are simply her visible demonstration of her acceptance of God's grace, power of love, resurrection-giving forgivness and inclusion in her life, which happened long before she bust into this dinner party. In Christian circles we talk a lot about faith alone, about the impossiblity to earn God's love which we can only receive. In non-Christian circles often there is talk that we don't have to earn love, that we all deserve it; we don't have to receive forgiveness, we're already all-right. Yet maybe both sides are off. It doesn't seem to me that we're all-right. When I look at the world I see that we seem to be lost, and lost in even more radical ways thanks to our industrial powers, technological developments, and penchant for warfare, jealousy, and violence. Oftentimes it seems that people of Christian faith talk a lot about salvation, faith, inclusion and grace...yet their actions don't communicate the same message.

Something I read basically said that, forgivness is received, should provoke in us a love of the other, of our neighbor, that such inward trasnformation can only be translated and communicated through outward action.

What do you hear in the scriptures? What does such a message of love, hope, forgiveness and grace mean when we'll gather for Christian worship on Father's Day - a day in which we celebrate Fathers...yet many of us cringe at the thought of celebrating relationships that are non-existant or possibly the opposite of what Jesus is talking about at this dinner party?

Indigo Day
@ the Fillmore tonight

This is one my of - if not the - favorite. Lots of history. Good music. Lots of history :)

Cool video - I like the use of words and the double display of the chord progressions being played.

An Extra Indigo Gift

OK - I'm losing it. Actually lost it a long time ago. I'm thinking today about the events of this 8th day celebration - the Lord's Day - what it means and how resurrection serves as the principal metannarative in my life and worldview. (you might of had to be at church this morning for my stream of consciousness to make sense)...anyway thinking about the immigration issues, fights, impasse and possibilties that lay before us at the moment...I'm reminded of the psalmists saying repeatedly that the God testified of in the Bible is the God of the orphan, the widow and the foreigner or immigrant....makes me think of this Indigo Girls song, Shame on You...some great poetry about the irony of our anti-immigration stances when we live in a country of immigrants.

Indigo Day Minus 1

This solo song, Let It Ring, written by Amy Ray on the Album Prom is one of my favorites. I think it's one of the best faith-related songs I've heard about the socio-political context & tension we live in today. It's a vibrant expression of faith in Christ in the midst of mixed and divided messages about what the Love of Christ means, costs and implies in our life together.

Here's the official video for the song..



Here's a thoughtful interview in which they talk about how they integrate their faith, political outspokeness, feminism, social action and their music.



Good food for thought today, Sunday, as we gather in Christian Communities....Jesus said, Love your neighbor as yourself. The challenge is which neighbors did he mean? Do we choose who and how? Or is Jesus talking about a different perspective and meaning of love?

Indigo Day minus 2

I can't resist one of my favorite songs on the most recent Indigo Girls CD, Little Perennials. So I'm including the video below. Look at the second video of my daughter performing the same song and you'll know what I like it so much.

Community
Looking for a Simpler Life
in the pool of Liquid Modernity

I'm struck by the barrage of articles, videos, interviews and blogs about our latest cause celebre (not that the whales are gone)and celebrity fixation - Paris Hilton. In jail, out of jail, back in jail and always in the paparazzi magazines. What's the fixation? What's the interest in a woman who has more money and influence than she should and more than most of us could ever imagine having. Is there such an interest in her because people feel like they know her, that as demented and arrogant as she may seem that she's a friend, part of their community through their interactions on E, in People, and through the blog perezhilton.com? Have we truly become - like some philosophers and social-scientists have said for sometime - so isolated in the rat race of modern life dominated by work in multinational companies and days in front of screens that the only place we can find community is through tv or magazines late at night as we recover from the long work day and dread the next one? Has paparazzi-driven media become the way that we meet each other? Maybe we're not bowling alone anymore, just simply alone.

I'm working through a book that I put down sometime ago, Dark Ages America: The Fiinal Phase of Empire by Morris Berman. He talks about Liquid Modernity:

the title of a book by sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, who defines Liquid Modernity as the condition of a society that lacks a clear sense of orientation, or the kind of stability that dervies from a long-standing tradition or set of norms. He claims that the culture of New Economy America is characterized by speed, fluidity, and transicence - in short - obsessive change. Being modern in this context means always being under construction, living life like a perpetual game of musical chairs. (my version of p. 15 in the book)

What's the trouble with being human these days? Are we so obsessed with change and fluidity that we allow ourselves to be moved around by multinational companies, desperate to keep a job, seeking to fund the essential economic tenants of shoping in the Pottery Barn catalogue from home, have the latest kitchen utensils, and cruising the stores located in every regional shopping center starting at Ann Taylor and Banana Republic all the way through the Gap, KayBee and Pea in a Pod. Are we so desperate for community, while living in the midst of unknown faces, that we turn to the paparazzi for purpose-filled meaning-making community? Berman goes on to say that we live in a culture in which the individual has to continually reinvent themselves, to go it alone, that we live in a country that is the ultimate anticommunity.

In the midst of the week I read the Food Section in the Chronicle and stumbled across an article - A Place At The Table - talking about the rapid and explosive growth of communal tables in restaurants in San Francisco. I wonder if such emerging interest in a well established European tradition is related to our life in liquid modernity? Maybe we've forgotten - or never learned - how to make community, how to find, what it looks like when you can touch, feel, and experience it?

I wonder if our hyper-individualism is reinformed and put on steroids by the fact that we operate in an economy in which we can easily be replaced, downsized, outsourced, or priveleged to become a consultant without health care, at any moment? We live and breathe a culture that talks about interdependency, mutuality, reciprocity, fluidity and growth....but actually doesn't put those things into practice. John Donne said that no man is an island. The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthains talks about the community of the church as the human body, in which the diverse variety of parts of the body have their particular roles but are not any more valued than any other part. They suffer together. They're honored together. It seems to me that such community is what we're looking for. It's the antidote to liquid modernity. It's not anything new in terms of human history, but it is unfindable in the Pottery Barn catalogue or on the book shelf at Barnes and Nobles. It's not something that a CEO can devise. It's not something that can be legislated through creative governmental policy-making or bobo targeted publicity campaigns. It can't really be found on E or in the pages of People. For me I find it in large part through choosing to live in community, in several...first in the context of my faith community: a place in which diverse people have choosen to be gathered into a community based upon the foundation of shared faith. But I'm also in other communities, spaces in which people have choosen to gather because of shared interests or common needs.

Maybe we're so interested in Paris Hilton, because we see ourselves - our fears, hopes, dreams and closet desires of striking out at the world, playing out in her, her partying, her driving style, and self-destruction?

Indigo Day minus 3

Here's another Indigo Girl video clip of the song Perfect World....if only...



This video gave me a deep desire to learn the banjo...how fun would that be. I love the lyrics...talking about what a perfect world we live in - if - we look the other way. The irony of the statement invites us to get invovled, to participate and to live, act and speak for transformation. Whenever I listen to this - I imagine myself on a stage playing a cool electrically amplified banjo, and then the words of Romans 12:1-2 come to my mind - the climactic conclusion of the Apostle Paul's letter to the church in ancient Rome.

Here's the verse in the NRSV translation:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Even better is Eugene Peterson's translation called The Message

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

A call not to fly away, to avoid the world in a pre-millienial escapist utopian vision, but rather a kingdom of God in the grit of flesh and bones invitation to real life here now. I gotta get a banjo...

The Indigo Girls are coming Monday to San Francisco....in preparation I'm going to post an Indigo Girl video every day until the concert...hope you enjoy.

Today's gift
Pendulum Swingers



Check out their myspace page here

what shapes our worldview

in a flattening world?

fear - faith & the familiar

I was returning from Berekely to Oakland on Tuesday and drove up Ashby and then down the 24 to downtown to get there. As I slowed at the light at Hiller Drive I was blessed with a surprisingly beautiful view of the bay all the way out through the Golden Gate Bridge. It's not that I didn't know that view was here...but it was as if I'd forgotten. The fog has been thick recently I told myself. Then I realized that I just don't ever see the bay. I live and work in East Oakland at the foot of the hills. So I don't usually see the bay, across to the city and up to Marin. My perspective is shaped by the space I live, work, and move in and through. I had to laugh at myself for it seems that in my busyness, concentration, and daily routine, I simply forget where I live, how amazingly beautiful it is and how diverse the landscape - both urban and natural - is. It got me thinking...

In reading some news articles since then I can't help but keep thinking about perspective...my lack of it even when I long for it. Our world is shrinking, Thomas Friedman would say it's flattening even faster through the forces of globalization. The slow food and green movements invite us to grab some perspective, to realize how much fossil fuel is used in order for us to drink the carbonated water from Northern Italy or to eat ripe tomatoes grown in Chile. I'm all for that. Yet our world has changed. Globalization has transformed everything. We need each other in order to produce, consume and move forward. Now I'm not a flag-waving capitalist, but when I read and studied Friedman's book The World Is Flat last year in a group my in-the-closet-socialist perspective was significanlty tweaked (except in terms of health care).

We can't choose to flee the fear of terrorists and Al-Qaeda by burying our heads in the sand of Isolationism like we did before Pear Harbor in the 40s. We can't simply keep ourselves safe from our 9/11-based fears of Islamic Fundamentalism by refusing residency to immigrants who may have used fake papers or guest workers who want to earn money picking the crops of the Central Valley when no one else is lining up to do it. We can't expect American Companies, in particular in Silicon Valley to thrive and excel if we refuse and radically limit the visas that we'll be given to tech workers and innovators from Bejing and Bangalore (among many other places). We can't rally around some fantasy-based monolingual vision of the righteous purity of the glory days of our past by insisting that English be our official language, while the majority of people living on our shared planet are not only bilingual but multi-lingual. We can't simply keep starting wars with whatever country or ethnic group seems to be a potential harbor or safeground for terrorist networks to work within and spread from...if so we'll soon be fighting not only in Iraq and Afghanistan but also in Indonesia, England, Germany and Spain. We can't base our decision-making merely on the repetitive choice of what is familar, not scary or threatening, or vote-getting.

It seems like we're losing perspective as a larger community, in terms of what we're afraid of, what and who we have faith in, and what foolishness we'll let be the foundation of our decision-making. Maybe it's like my loss of perspective living at the cross-section of the flatlands and the hills here in Oakland. I spend most of time in the place(s) that is and are familiar, comfortable and experientially rote. Of course my perspective is tweaked because it's limited by my repeated choice to walk (or drive) the same path and by necessity. But it doesn't have to be. In fact it can't stay that way. Why do we so often let the little picture, our short-term fears, or the details not only influence but shape our bigger persepective and larger world-view. It's like we're trying to find our way by looking at the pepples underneath or feet instead of looking ahead to where the path is going. As a person of faith practicing my own in the context of a Christian Community I find that often I'm frustrated with the church for losing perspective, for choosing the familiar, harkening back to supposed glory days out of fear of the changing world in which we are and a lack of faith that God will - and maybe already has - prepared ways for transformation, meaningful purpose, and new ways of being together in community. The church community seems to base her decision-making process on fear of the future, faith in some sort of vague dream of better days, times and things that can be preserved and re-discovered by keeping ourselves pure, untainted and stuck in the familiar of old hymns, cookie cutter liturgies and comfortable programming. Faith - according to the book of Hebrews - is "being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (11:1) Or as Eugene Peterson translates it "The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd." I'd much rather have faith and trust be the foundation of my decision-making than fear and the familiar.

I think about my

Here's some of the reading I've done these past days that influenced some of my thinking...

"A divisive declaration of official English" (SF Gate 6/6/7)

"Anger over visa provision in bill" (SF Gate 6/7/7)

"Immigration Bill survives in Senate" (SF Gate 6/7/7)

"Beyond Bush. What the world needs is an open, confident America" (Newsweek 6/11/7)

The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman

Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire by Morris Berrman

The Church in Transition by Tim Conder

Maxwell Park Elementary School

Robbed

Can you help?

Maxwell Park Elementray School was vandalized and robbed on the night of Monday, June 4th. The theives vandalized several classrooms, destroying materials and doing some graffiti work. They also stole the IMac Laptops from the school's computer lab. I went by the school this mornign. If you can help this local Oakland Unified School please contact the school office asking either for acting Principal Ruben Aurelio or Charlotte Bremond. If you know anyone who works for Apple or other computer companies that might be able to help this struggling local school with donations of computers or other help please refer them to the school.



Maxwell Park Elementary
4730 Fleming Ave.
Oakland, CA 94619
(510) 879-1390

The robbery is being investigated. Sadly I noticed this wasn't the only school robbery in Oakland in the past days, today's Oakland Tribune reports in the article Security gaps leave schools open to thefts on the theft of laptops from EXCEL High - all this while Oakland schools may get some local control back in the near(ing) future.

If you can help...contact the school...if you know someone who might be able to..pass this info on.
Thanks!

GEORGE W. BUSH PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY

DESTROYED BY FLOOD

Crawford, Texas (AP) May 23, 2007

A tragic flood this morning destroyed the personal library of President George W. Bush. The flood began in the presidential bathroom where both of the books were kept. Both of the books have been lost. A presidential spokesperson said the president was devastated, as he had almost finished coloring the second one. The White House tried to call FEMA, but there was no answer.

Couldn't resist posting this ... thanks to Nanni for the laugh.

New 5th Grade Class Opening at

North Oakland Community Charter School (NOCCS)

Many friends of ours go to North Oakland Community Charter School (NOCCS). The school is opening a new 4th/5th grade classroom this Fall (Sept 2007). They have enough 4th graders to fill it, but still looking for 5th graders. One thing to know about this school is that if an older sibling is inthe school, it gives siblings an automatic preference next time there is an opening for the sibling's grade. Anyone with a current 4th grader who is also scrambling to find a kindergarten for their youngerchild might want to take note, as NOCCS kindergarten admissions is highly competetive. NOCCS is also planning to open its first 6th grade (with the idea of growing into a K-8 school) in the Fall of 2008, so a 5th graderentering NOCCS this coming Fall is likely to have a built in middle school. NOCCS is a public charter school, and therefore free.

http://www.noccs.org/

Thanks to Tako for the tip!

Here's some more photos of Fruitvale Church's Pentecost Celebration of May 27th. Thanks to Alan Ball and Joan Curtis for sharing them.

New Peet's Coffee

In Oakland's Dimond District

Scheduled to open June 25th

If you've noticed these past few days the new Peet's Coffee is quickly taking shape in the Dimond District (on the corner of Fruitvale and Bienati - across the street from Farmer Joe's, in the place of the former Dimond bookstore). I snuck in yesterday trying to find the opening date....failed on that one...but here's some under construction pictures that show you that it's not too far off.

Oakland Pastor Rev. Bill Beatty

retires after 34 years of ministry

in Rockridge

In SF Gate today there's an article on Oakland Presbyterian pastor Rev. Bill Beatty. Retiring this weekend after 34 years of ministry (his entire career) at College Avenue Presbyterian Church in Oakland, the article lifts up some of the dramatic changes he's witnessed and participated in since 1973 in Rockridge, one of Oakland's most dynamic neighborhoods. You can read the article by Chip Johnson on SF Gate here.

Nonviolence Is Organized Love:
One Hour for Peace

in the Dimond

Spend an hour with your neighbors. We will light candles and hold signs that express our hopes for peace in Oakland and the world. Bring a sign if you like, but you don't need to because we have extras. Just bring yourself.

When: Friday June 1, 2007 at 7 PM (the 1st of EVERY month)
Where: Oakland, Corner of MacArthur & Lincoln ("Peace Park"--a small park across from 7-11)

This is something we've been doing the first of the month every month since January 1, 2005. We always have fun and it's great to make new friends in the community. For more information, call 510-530-3099 or 510-504-2003 (cell). Feel free to forward this to anyone you think might be interested.

I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do.
--Helen Keller------------------------------------------------

Molly KenefickTop Dog, Doggy Lama Pet Carehttp://www.doggylamapetcare.com/http://www.flickr.com/photos/doggylama/

Home Office 510-530-3099
Cell 510-504-2003

A dog teaches a child fidelity, perseverence, and to turn around three times before lying down.--Robert Benchley

Creation Museum Created

to ensure kids are taught by the Book

as opposed to pedagogically trained professionals

In the Chronicle this morning I read my third review of the new $27 million dollar Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. Created to battle the propoganda producing secular museums of our nation which treat evolution as fact, and the evolutionary infected teaching strategies of our public schools, the new museum will teach the correct version of not only the Bible but all biological/ecological knowledge. All this for a $20 ticket! Turns out it's not the only creation museum in the US, there's another one - the Museum of Creation and Earth History in Santee, CA.

As I read the article in SF Gate I was struck by one of the comments of the movers-n-shakers of this movement who said, "many modern Christians have strayed from the basic tenets of their faith because they learned in school that evolution, not Genesis, provided the best blueprint for the story of creation."

Now I might sound like some bitter progressive, complaining and criticizing the more fundamentalistic and literal branches of the faith that I profess...which I guess I am...but the point for me it WHY? Why is this museum needed? Why is there a need to justify the creationist worldview through political investment (or divestment of local school boards in order to purge the schools of Darwin-related literature) or through expensive museums all in order to "fix" the worldviews of our children?

First of all - seems to me like you should educate your children at home, or in your faith community, if you really want them to believe first and foremost in creation.

Second, we all have a choice in belief - that's what makes faith belief as opposed to propoganda - so if your kids choose something else...seems better to spend the money on trying to convince your own kids to see the light than to move on to other's children.

Third, such a museum completely misses the boat. The creations stories in Genesis 1 and 2 aren't about visualization, but about dialogue, interdependence, community and mutuality. God doesn't create by showing Adam and Eve a diarama made in an old shoe box of what God's about to do. Rather God creates by speaking, by directing God's word to another, to another subject, inviting the universe to a dialogue, speaking humanity into being in order to invite them into a relational discussion, a life in community. In every dialogue choice is inherent. I'm not talking about a woman's choice, but the choice that all of us have when we're spoken to. We can choose to respond, or to play deaf mute and refuse to return any word.

To me that's the beauty of the Judeo-Creation vision of creation. It's not about the historical timeline or possibilty of a true creationist-scientific process hidden within this words of Genesis. It's about the worldview that we were created - back through the story of the garden - that we are created - today - for a dialogue with the living God, to live in community together based upon this dialogue, to live as stewards of the earth - not so much because it's commanded but because that's our purpose, it's one of the ways through which we can respond to God's Word - spoken in creation, born in Nazareth, and present among us by the Spirit. Why is it that there is such a need to make everything justifiable, quantifiable, and undeniable. Rather than trying to fight unbelief with a museum...seems like you should do it over a latte at Peet's or dinner at your own home. Seems to me like such a museum will only preach to the creationist choir, and their captive children dragged their on vacation as opposed to the day at 6 Flags that they dream of.

HEROES

sites to keep you going during the summer break

and while sylar regenerates following his kamikaze run in

I caught up on some back-issue reading of Enterntainment Weekly last night, in particular the May 11th issue devoted to the Heroes season finale that aired on May 21st.

During the summer break, following the heroe x-men-unified stand against Sylar and the nuclear bomb explosion that was destined to destroy New York, the Heroes Team and the Marketing Division of NBC are seeking to keep the buzz going online.

Watch the battle-climaxing season finale at NBC's home page here.

Watch video with commentary by writer/creator Tim Kring here.

Read the pseudo-website hosted by Hiro's father, Kaito Nakamura, exploring Japanese mythology and heroic archetypes here.

Read the EW archives about Heroes here.

Pentecost 2007 @ Fruitvale Presbyterian Church
Here are some of the best-ofs of my photos of our Pentecost Celebration this past weekend in Dimond Park.

Marriage

The Economic Advantages of Marriage

This week's Economist has an excellent articel on Marriage in America, entitled "The frayed knot". It talks about how the divorce rate is actually decreasing in mid to upper socio-economic classed American famlies increasing in couples and families placed lower on the socio-economic ladder. It seems that marriage can increase stabilitiy in terms of economic power, social stability, and producitivity. Of course what the study implies is that the benefits of marriage most occur when marriage is chosen, entered into by choice, as opposed to necessity, and in particular at a later age as opposed to late adolescence/early adult-hood because of unexpected children.

All of this analysis is based solely on systemic economics in the American GDP and indivdual family financial power since 1994. The article got me thinking about the wide governmental impetus to protect the historic and traditional institution of marriage. Those initiatives talk all about moral, culture and religion. This article - which didn't focus on those issues - simply states that our governement should encourage all committed couples to marry, not only for their own financial well-being, but also for the financial stability of our national system. Read the article online here.

Birdcage or Birdbath?

Which is the Church?

Which is the Church called to be?

We celebrated Pentecost today as a church community in Dimond Park, having our worship celebration outside followed immediately by an all church picnic. The story of Pentecost (told in Chapter 2 of the Acts of the Apostles) was presented to us anew through drama by various members of our community of faith.

I spoke about the church - then, how the Spirit of God erupted into people's experience, expectations and visions of what faith meant for individuals in a community. I spoke about the church for us today - how the Spirit of God explodes into our lives, inviting us to new experiences, to seize new opportunities, to embrace a bigger vision of how God "shows up" in our lives. So is church to be a birdbath or a birdcage. (The metaphor comes from Jack Rogers.) We had both on our communion table. The cage seeks to keep a bird present by barriers, ensuring that the bird won't escape or go somewhere else so that the owner can always enjoy the presence of the bird. The other, the birdbath, has no barriers, is open, birds are free to come and go, to find refreshment when they want, need and seek it. One is built upon trust in a relationship, the other on mistrust or fear.

As I reflect on my recent outbursts of frustration with the state of the church in terms of who can be ordained and serve as leaders - not just as pastors - but as elders and deacons - local lay leader in local church communities - I'm struck by the question. We often choose the birdcage, in how we construct the church, in how we approach our relationships. Don't we? We often make choices - most often because of our own baggage - based on fear and in mistrust. Oftentimes we approach encounters and relationships fearful that we won't receive what we desire, that we won't be heard, that we will be forgotten, that we aren't all that important. As a result we're either hyper-aggressive, taking up all the place, on the attack to ensure that we don't get steam-rolled. Or we're passive, apathetically assuming that what we want won't happen anyway so why bother. It seems like a lot of our relational encounters in our urban life swing back and forth between these poles. What does it take for us to choose trust over mistrust, to live acting from hope and opposed to reacting from fear?

As I reflect on today I have to admit the irony of the birdcage/birdbath metaphor. It's not just about church - it's about us. How can we move from living in birdcage mode to birdbath mode? Is that what we even want? It's interesting....seems to me (not that I have a lot of experience with birds besides flipping them) that birds in cages seem happy and content...they have all of their needs met, they are fed, they drink, their cages are cleaned....yet they have no freedom, no liberty, no choice, no passion to choose - to develop - to follow - to share....maybe that's the whole thing about trust, hope, and fear.....it all comes down to freedom, dependence, interdependence, collaboration, reciprocity, peripathetic living..... I want to live in the birdbath...how can I, and when I say "I" I mean "us", encourage, empower and exhort others to do so too?

SUEDE

Darchell Hamilton

One Business Owner in the Community of the Dimond

Have you noticed the clothing store that opened across the street from our church last summer? Darchell Hamilton owns and operates it, owning not just a small business but working steadily and steadfastly to help improve the immediate neighborhood around our church.

She was in the e-news recently on Novometro.com.....so I thought I'd post the article that I received via the Dimond Community Web Link for all to enjoy. Read the article inserted below, or on its original page with photos here

If you haven't check out her store yet - or met Darchell - take the time to stop by and say "hi."
______

Novo MetroSuede on the EdgeShopping Johnny Z. May 10, 2007 at 14:23 02:23:55 PM

On busy MacArthur Boulevard, several blocks uphill from Fruitvale Avenue, aboutique named Suede sits behind a handsome Mediterranean façade. Fashion retailmay be a bit edgy for the Dimond district, but Suede is on the edge of theDimond. “Technically, it’s Bret Harte,” explains Darchell Hamilton, proprietorof the one-year-old shop (2170 MacArthur Blvd). But a few blocks can’t stop Ms.Hamilton from seeing what Farmer Joe and other East Oakland entrepreneurs havealso seen: an opportunity.

For Ms. Hamilton, bringing fresh fashions to her hometown has been a lifelonggoal. “I’ve always tried to express my creative side. But like most people, Iwant something stable. As a mother, that’s how I feel,” she says.

With her two children in their teens, a break from work allowed her to exploreentrepreneurship. “I was off work, and had time to be creative. I started tothink, what can I do? I just didn’t want to go back to corporate America,” shesays. “It wasn’t impulsive -- I had thought about it for years. I wasintimidated by the uncertainty of retail. If I wasn’t married, I don’t think I’dtake that leap.”

But now Ms. Hamilton has no regrets. At the end of last year, she doubled herspace by moving into the next storefront. She has plans to move Suede forward when she has the opportunity. “I want to combine home accents with clothing.”

It’s not hard to imagine what sort of house-wares Suede would sell. DarchellHamilton stocks her airy space and boudoir furniture with lightly coloredmerchandise that is contemporary and accessible. “I’m feminine; I think ladiesshould look like ladies.” But she doesn’t emphasize dresses. “If it’s toodressy, people will only come by when they have somewhere to go. I try to havereasonable prices. I want people to impulse shop!”

More than a few items attract an impulsive eye. A white and ivory, lace andeyelet top by Kenzie Girl ($48) could easily slip over blue “skinny jeans” by It($74), perhaps accessorized with heavy, intertwined brass bangles ($14) and aresin rose-shaped ring in one of several natural colors ($10). Amici’s red feltclutch ($48) would make the outfit more artsy, peacock-feather earrings by AdiaKibur ($14) more hippie.

Other items recall classic styles, as does a hanging photo print, fashionablyoverexposed, of Audrey Hepburn. Kersh’s ivory cowlneck sweater ($44), or asquare-topped tunic in black by I-On ($34), would go well with a white quiltedpurse, an oversized trapezoid of faux leather by Sense ($58). A looselyconstructed tan polka-dot dress by Zia ($34) contrasts with a chain-linknecklace of leather and gunmetal ($18). Local label Orondide’s “Africa 1” teescome in a variety of color combinations, some suggesting a black-power rally;others, a black-lit disco.

Locally made tees, picture frames, and music round out a selection tailored tothe community. Ms. Hamilton’s love for her city is apparent. “I grew up in Oakland. I moved out two years ago. I desperately wanted to come back. I love Oakland. I hate it when people talk bad about it,” she says.

The Dimond district is just one pocket of much-maligned East Oakland. “We have problems, but you just don’t hang out in those areas, and you’ll be fine.” Darchell Hamilton is proud to be part of revitalizing the city. “It’s a longtime coming, and it’s about time. It’s not that the interest isn’t here - it’sthe businesses that aren’t.”

An Ideal Scholar

Anthony Muiru is a 2007 Graduate of UC Berkeley, headed to Harvard Medical School in the Fall and a member of our church community @ Fruitvale in Oakland. What's remarkable - among the many things - about him is that his parents are both school teachers from Kenya. They won green cards in the lottery back in the late 90's an then sold everything to move to America to give their children a different chance in life. Their efforts, sacrifices, and faith have paid off in many ways. Anthony was in the news last week, interviewed on KTVU Channel 2.

You can watch the interview (about 3 minutes) here.

PENTECOST - MAY 27 - BIRTHDAY OF THE CHURCH

Pentecost is the birth day story of the Christian Church Community. Told in the biblical text of the Acts of the Apostles chapter 2, the story is the theological teaching that God's presence among us (the Holy Spirit) gathers us together and forms us into, teaches how to live, and gives direction and purpose to life in community.

The story of Pentecost is surprising for many of us today. In a time in which we associate everything Christian with red state context, the values and principals of the failed neoconservative worldview and politcal platform, and are told by progressive politicians that Christians are basically ignorant card carrying members of the Republican party, the story in which God is the actor affirming and giving the gift of cultural diversity, the call to life-in-community as meaning-making, recognizing our need for one another, and inviting us to make meaning in life by living meaningfully in the lives of others is remarkably refreshing.

If you've read the blog recently you've heard my ranting and raving about the church in which I live, serve, and make meaning of my life. I find myself frustrated because of the fulfillment and joy that I've been blessed with in terms of how I've been blessed by living for so long and in so many diverse ways in the community of the church and feeling frustrated by what I perceive and experience to be a fascist-monopoly of the church worldview in terms of being so focused on issues of sexuality and sexual oreintation in the midst of a world that is not stuck in an impasse, nor refusing to be flexible in terms of the chaos-like adaptation required and invited by our multinational wired world, nor not fluent in the language of diversity as the means to a greater end, and not just the end in itself. I'm frustrated by a community of faith that finds its meaning and vocation in a story (the Pentecost story) about community yet repeatedly lives from and makes its value statements in terms of a completely consumeristic hyper-individualistic worldview and ethical praxis.

I was struck by an article in last week's Newsweek about Technology and some of the efforts to encourage, empower and equip those who will make the next steps in terms of technological development and the web 2.0. In the article someone was quoted as saying that "anyone over 30 is just too old" in terms of being someone to invest in. Why is it that such innovative, forward thinking is the last thing that we seem to look to in the church community in terms of theological perspective, leadership potential, or worldview formation? We in the church - as a system - as so content and empassioned by what was popular and powerful in the 80s corporate culture that we're stuck with our heads in the sand in terms of what is happening in the world so that we might thus listen for how God is calling us to be present in our world today. So many of my brothers and sisters are so focued on who is having sex with whom and in what position and if they're wearing appropriate heterosexual or traditional marriage rings, that our church doesn't even catch a glimpse of what is happening all around us.

Today in the paper I was struck again by an article about McMansions and how we as a nation keep getting bigger houses despite the reality that the size of our families is shrinking. We're spending crazy money in order to live increasingly isolated lives. Why aren't we as a church tackling that emerging cultural and economically-suicidal ethos, or talking about immigration and how Jesus calls us to love our neighbor as ourself, as opposed to fighting over who can serve in a leadership position in a church community based upon what they do behind their bedroom door?

I joined the church community and stayed because of the refreshing, radical, and ressurectional message of the gospel of Jesus the Christ, the hope that it extends to meaning-purpose-and grace in the human experience, and the promise of peace that I heard in my experience of it. Why aren't we more focused on finding innvotive and theologically imaginative ways to get people out of the emptiness of their vast McMansions than on what they're doing inside them?

New Indigo Girls Video

"Last Tears"



As I'm working my way through my emails following a week of vacation I ran across one containing a link to a newly posted - just released - video of the song "Last Tears" by the Indigo Girls. I like the look - plus as always great music and thoughtfully challenging lyrics. The song seems to be about lost love...and the images about a lost war that we still seem unable to declare as lost. hmm... You can also see the video (and tons of others) on the Indigo Girls Blog Site here

Oakland Family Fun Day, Saturday, June 9:

Hosted by Mayor Ron Dellums and the City of Oakland, Oakland families can take advantage of FREE admission to the city's four premier family attractions:

the Oakland Zoo,

the Oakland Museum of California,

Chabot Space & Science Center

and

Children's Fairyland.

Each venue will host special activities that day as they roll out the red carpet for families to experience the magic of Oakland together.

All FREE for Oakland Residents.

Learn more at The City of Oakland Website [here]

Pictures from Presbytery Meeting

Who's first and who's last?

My thoughts are still not cristalized in terms of my last blog entry (call me minister x). My mind is full of stuff - but I'm struggling to unpack it in an expressible way.

I read 2 blogs that reflected on the same events and ask similar questions, both of which added to the simmering stews of my thoughts.

Check out

Bruce Reyes-Chow on "Why I Should Leave the Presbyterian Church (USA)"

and

Sarah Reyes on "Getting in the way of the Gospel!"

In reading the SF Chronicle today I ran across a surpsing article - again adding too much for me to handle to the stew - "Dean urges Dems to welcome young evangelicals" by Carla Marinucci.
Turns out Howard Dean was in the Bay Area yesterday, the politican of internet fame, the infamous scream, and the widely publicized proclamation that the GOP is a white Christian party. He must have met some new folks, or gotten some new advisors...or something. He spoke yesterday encouraging the Democractic party to reach out to the young evangelicals scattered in the red and blue states specifically via their Christian faith. "People don't want to go to church anymore ... and come out feeling bad because they happen to know somebody who's gay,'' he said. "People want to go to church because they know what they can do about poverty, about Darfur, about the environment.'' What is it that Howard Dean has learned through observation or quite possibly some experiential participation about the emerging Christian world-view being born pheonix-like from the ashes of the GOP-embracing, single-issue focused Christian political/propoganda machine of Focus on the Family, Fallwell and others? Dean seems to be more aware of the world, and the young-erish people (in age and world-view) that are present, passionate and purposeful in our churches both evangelical and progressive, than many of our own church community leaders!

New leadership paradigms repeatedly point to the necessity of being outward or external focused while being secure and sure of core values. Interesting that much of the church runs the gauntlet in a backwards fashion, focused on core values while being secure and sure that no external forces/thoughts/communities might actually share those, or be articulating them differently. Makes me wonder...in a stereotypical way it seems that many of the church that are consumed with the raging debate on ordination and sexual orientation share similar traits....larger, multi-staffed communities (with no shortage of people or finances) or smaller churches with very large financial endowments. It's a gross over-simplification. But interesting. Do we become so inwardly focused when we're wealthy financially or people-rich that we lock the doors refusing to looks outside what's happening rallying the troops around the flagpole of our core values so that they won't wander off? Do smaller churches - either by choice or who've become deeply dysfunctional, destructive or depressing because they've been so inwardly focused for so long - have more fluidity and freedom to rediscover their core values, articulating them in ways that resonate and enter into dialogue with the evolving thoughts, emerging values, and growing world-view all around us? Although it's overly-simple, the contrast strikes me as possibly ringing true at certain levels, at least in my limited experience and exposure. If it is true how does it resonante with Jesus' teaching that the "first will be last and the last will be first,"[Mark 10:31, Matthew19:30, 20:16 and Luke 13:30]. Granted in those places Jesus is talking about the first as those that deem themselves first in importance in the eyes of God because their righteousness and purity surpasses all the least and last in importance around them (a comparison-judgment made based on race, enthnicity, gender, class, and experience in that day). The deeper question seems to be to be about core values - what we define them as -which we share and which we don't and which we consider to be the 'first' in essential importance and which we consider to be the 'last.'

Call Me Minister X

I love the church. It’s the relational community in which I have grown in my faith. It’s the community in which I have grown as a human being, as a man, and as a person of faith. It’s the community in which I have been given to and asked to give. But I also hate the church. In an age in which decisions are increasingly being made organically and synergistically through the resources of web communities, blackberries, open-sourcing, off shoring, virtual conferencing, and relational dialogues over coffee, the church seems to be going the opposite direction. The world in which we live is moving increasingly faster in its decision-making (not that speed in itself or even efficacy is the deciding-factor) with increased fluidity, leaving room for emergent ambiguity in order to adapt and respond to the changing world and context in which we live and more and have our being. The larger church in which I practice and serve seems to remain firmly footed in the modernistic everything-is-quantifiable mode of the past, while the cultural-social-and economic context in which I find myself is moving more and more towards the emerging worldview (aka postmodernism) in which relativity, the impossibility of total objectivity, pluralism, community and experience are the quantifiers for what we live, experience and seek to understand. The church seems to be increasingly (maybe that's just my cynical observation) interested and focused upon rigid rules, codifying our beliefs, and articulating in snappy formats our essential beliefs. Yet I find myself (and I know I'm not alone) more interested in opening up the community to hear and experience more diverse perspectives, dialoguing about my beliefs and seeking to grasp how belief is essential to my daily life. Can we even live together when we have such divergent worldviews? Is consensus or agreement in such a worldview-ish diversity even possible?

When the 'modern' world view was emerging in Europe could those of the 'pre-modern' world view be in agreement or communion with them? I think of the lives, experience, and judgments of Galileo, Copernicus, Diderot, Hume or Descartes. From our vantage point they seem to have been remarkable thinkers, articulating what seems logical and reasonable. Yet in their world they were radicals advocating the overthrow - not of the status quo - but of the major way in which the world was understood and the way in which that experience was articulated. Maybe there comes a time when we either have to draw a line in the sand or start throwing the sand at each other? What did they think? Is there any other reason was so often such great thinkers seem to become recluses? Maybe withdrawing is the only option?; or maybe just distance on a regular, but limited, level?

At a contentious church meeting the other night I began to have some of these thoughts. Each time someone “called for the question,” I felt isolated. All those that stood to vote, articulating an opinion diverging from my own, seemed to be grey-haired Anglos twice or thrice my age. Now I'm not seeking to bad mouth or slander boomers, builders, and their forerunners, nor grey haired folks (I'm an emergent one myself), nor am I seeking to be a hypocrictal guilted-by-historical-white-privelege Anglo middle class male. But I felt unwelcomed as we talked, debated, and deliberated, as I do often in our poliarized-overly-political and clergy-focused reformed church community (at least that which is the majority church culture issues from the dominant culture of North America in the mid 190os) which wants to reaffirm optimistically that we should flee pluralism for the safe, familiar confines of a black-n-white world view. Our church councils vote about sexuality - who gets it and with whom - yet those who seem most irate over the issue seem to be possibly those the most in need of get'in some. It's a crass cynical over-simplification, yet the most accurate way I can articulate my thoughts and wonderings at this moment and time.

"Why can't we just get along?" some might ask. Or others might assert that I'm a relativist in my Biblically based and experientially enhanced essential belief that God calls both heterosexual and gay and lesbian people to love God, to serve God by loving our neighbors in a Christ-ly way, and to be continually open to the guidance and movement of the Holy Spirit in the ways in which we seek God's Word in our world.

Maybe I'm a blasphemer, a relativist, laxest, or an opportunistically optimistic Gen X-er. Maybe not. Yet what I'm seeking to do in life, faith, personal world view expansion and spiritual maturity is to be open to change (not for change's sake) but rather because I can't believe that our understanding of knowledge (whether scientific, social, philosophical or theological) can be firmly and irrefutably built upon some epistemological foundation that can be codified in a book, measured in a test tube, or analyzed through "objective" statistical analysis.

So will I burn in hell alone? I don’t think so. Yet that’s what some say indirectly to me through their actions, words and judgments. You can just call me Minister X.

HEROES ADDICTION

I've become totally addicted to HEROES, one of my guilty gluttonous TV pleasures. I'm sucked into the story line, plus the story doesn't contain any sex-kitten housewives constantly complaining and scheming, or Mr. Big solving horrible homicides, or the nympho doctors of Seattle Grace.

In watching last night's episode I couldn't remember what Sylar's original power was. Does anyone know? You can watch the episode here. Check out the graphic novel option on nbc.com here.

what if you don't know anyone else?

One of today's lectionary Bible texts for Christian worship services was John 13:31-35

31When [Judas Iscariot] had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” 34I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’

I've been thinking about this after a full day of preaching, talking, listening, sharing, and dreaming. How do you share such love if you have no one to share it with? That might sound stupid, but seriously if you know no one else to share it with - or maybe have no one else who wants to hear what you have to say or witness what you're doing - how could you ever love another as we believe Christ loves us and call us to love? Most faith sharing or faith encounter discussions are between someone who pratices one faith and someone who doesn't, but how can you ever hope to have such a discussion if you know no one who doesn't think exactly like you, share the same beliefs, or same worldview?

what are you passionate about?
An editorial from Monte McClain – Pastor, Fruitvale Presbyterian Church

PASSION. It’s what makes us tick. It’s what motivates us. At times it’s what consumes us. For some it’s what eludes us. May 27th is Pentecost: the birth day of the church, the affirmation of Christian community, and the Holy Spirit given mandate for the church to be a community of faith characterized as multicultural, intergenerational, diverse and by its passion. As I reflect on where we are as a church and our Pentecostal call to be a passionate church I wonder what we’re passionate about? Looking at our nation and world today I see that we’re passionate about a great many diverse things. We’re passionate about giving the surge in Iraq more of a chance, to bring the soldiers home now, for a particular party, for a particular approach to immigration in our country, or for the new summer blockbuster movies that begin arriving this weekend. We’re passionate about the car we drive & how many miles it gets to the gallon. We’re passionate about recycling, saving money, staying healthy, losing weight, improving our neighborhood, educating our children and youth, and even the Golden State Warriors in their fairy-tale-end-of-the-season.

But what are we passionate about both as individual Christians and as a gathered community of Christian faith (a church)? In reading the Oakland Tribune this past week I was struck by the story of an East Bay Church that seems to be most passionate about spanking children so that they can be corrected and raised in the wisdom of the Lord. The article grabbed my attention, as intended, and made me wonder about my own passion and the passion of our
church community here at Fruitvale. I was troubled that the passion of a church community would be focused seemingly in its entirety around the notion of spanking as essential. It just seems to un-essential in terms of what it means to be a follower of Jesus the Christ in our massively un-churched world. Why not be passionate about serving the poor, advocating for more affordable housing, fighting the spread of AIDS in Africa, freedom in Darfur, Immigrant Rights, or the full inclusion of all people in the life and leadership of the Presbyterian Church?

So I thought about Fruitvale Presbyterian Church. What are we – what are you – passionate about? For some of us it’s that church needs to start on time, or the use of the organ in worship or how our liturgy is inclusive of our multiculturality; maybe it’s what is served at coffee hour, maybe it’s who is serving communion and how it’s done, maybe it’s about a particular mission project (NEST, COPE, Tilden School), maybe it’s what scripture is being presented and lifted up in worship, the emerging community groups, the monthly peace vigil or our efforts to reach out to our immediate neighborhoods; maybe it’s the art that’s on the walls of the sanctuary, or the artwork that shouldn’t be on the walls, maybe it’s about who will be at worship, or summer camp, or Godly Play, or what the amount in the offering plate will be. What are we passionate about? I’m not sure. What I mean is that I can picture the faces of each person who is passionate about the things listed above, but what are we passionate about as an entire congregation? Are we passionate about something that’s essential to us all or are we divided among our diverse passions for our particular pet projects or purposes? What do you think is our common passion?

Peace to you and yours, Monte

Read more of our May church newsletter by clicking on "THE VOICE" at our homepage.

Mrs. Moses

My mom is a email joke mailer. Here's a funny one that caught my eye today.

Why Bother Being Christian?

I'm in my recover-from-Sunday mode, reading through the stack of papers in order to catch up after a long day of church community related events and encounters. While eating burritos with my daughters an article caught my eye in the Oakland Tribune of today (4/30) - "Spanking Children is God's will, says El Sobrante church." You can read the article online here. The pastor of this church - as well as members of this faith community - affirm, advise and strongly encourage spanking, preferable with a rod or flexible stick. The pastor is quoted as saying, "Corporal punishment is not something you do to the child, it's something you do for the child." According to them, "your goal as a parent is to correct the child or get him back on the right path." Now maybe your mental red flags are being raised, and your saying to yourself "maybe that Monte is merely just another one of those liberal, flag-burning, gay-loving, anti-american progressive pigs that doesn't think we should spank our children - or even worse that our big brother government should make spanking actually illegal punishable by the electric chair, or at least some sort of fine." But my personal political, philisophical and cultures values are not really the issue here (at least in my limited, judgemental and openely biased opinion).

What really struck and horrified me in this article is that this church has published and continues to distribute an pamphlet entitled "Spank Your Child or Spoil Your Child." According to this pamphlet, (you can read some of it online here) parents who do not practice corporal punishment are depriving their children of the only method God says produces wisdom, and risk directly opposing God's will.

WHAT? I hear the church saying (albeit via the media service through which I was informed our the ministry and outreach actions of a nearby church community) that God teaches us best through pain, suffering, and physical punishment. I looked up at my daughters munching down on burritos, rice and beans, and thought to myself, "so - I must be a devil-loving pagan parent since I seek to teach my children about the love of God by telling them the stories of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, encouraging them to love others as we believe God loved us, to recognize every person as our neighbor, and to experience church activities and worship as celebrations of God's love and the community of faith. I'm doing all that when I should simply be beating the crap out of my daughters if they sass, fail to eat their vegetables, or don't want to go to bed. Do they believe that Jesus told his disciples to "let the little children come unto me for the kingdom of God is for such of them" because children are much easier to correct theologically through the use of a rod or some other sort of flexible stick?

I'm horrified because this is the sort of image that is repeatedly, consistently and widely dissimenated in our culture and world as one of the snapshots that form the mosaic portrait of what a North-American Christian in 2007 looks like. I'm scandalized that folks who might (now I haven't talked with them about this so I might be incorrect and definitely am judgmental) view the Shoah, the emergence of AIDS as a global medical epidemic, or recent genocides in Rwanda and Sudan as merely punishments or "object lessons" through which God was and is seeking to teach us how to be wise, and to live in God's will - are lifted up as the definitive representation of what I believe, have based my life upon and use as the lens through which I interact with everyone and everything in the universe. Why is it that such stories and actions make the limelight the same week that the Economist reports on the nerely universally accepted vision of Capital Punishment as a Capital Mistake, and Tom Friedman of the NY Times writes an editorial on our failing school system in which we're boring not only our children to death but beating our intellectual future into paralysis. (Read it here "China needs an Einstein - so do we" or catch multimedia clips here). How come no one reported on the marvelous things that Jim Wallis or Jack Rogers did this past week?

Now I know that the media seeks to sell papers more than to tell the truth. I know that they do that by publishing sensationalist and over-the-top stories as opposed to the reputed-to-be-too-boring stuff of every day life when normal people seek to make a difference in their daily actions, decisions and purchases. But really! It's not just the media that portray or seek to further such portraits of Christians. Churches and christians themselves are also doing it. Between the paternal persecution of Dobson and his dominons, and the polarizing comments made by run-of-the-mill disciples against any follower of the way who is not a member of the NRA, Republican Party, staunchly homophobic, against the ACLU, the UN, and the separation of church and state, there is little room for anyone else who seeks to articulate the driving purpose behind their life of Christian faith in any other way. Now I might sound like I'm calling for some sort of gulag for people that believe differently than me. They have the right to their fundamentalist interpretation of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, and such a right is not only guaranteed by our Country but also essential to the diverse specturm of Christian thought. What bothers me is that so often and increasingly - not just in the media but in the minds of thoughtful, open, and intellectually curious non-Christian people I know and love - Christians are percieved as a blind band of believers in Karl Rove as the Messiah, who possess a world-view based on fear of the other, mistrust of diversity and an existential angst cuased by all things related to evolutionary biology and the modernist-scientific-perspective of knowledge. At what point did being a Christian necessitate a polarizing choice between "either/or" when the Apostle Paul portrayed fiath in Christ as a dialectical choice between "both/and" in his foundational letter to the church in Rome? It doesn't take the atheistic testimony of Sam Harris to make folks ask the question, "Why bother being Christian?" It seems that we members or the Christian Community are already giving more than enough proselytizing testimony to initiate such wondering.