Bush “Unclean?”

Why doesn’t George W. Bush just step down and go hide in Crawford?

I mean, when Mayan priests are having to perform rituals to remove evil spirits that follow you around, you probably need to rethink some things.

I’m with the Mayans on this one: if GWB ever came to my temple, I’d go all Maccabean on the place.

 

Change of Heart?

 

While we’re at it…

In order to fit in with the previous post’s theme, I thought I would mention something I’ve come across recently that is absolutely ridiculous to me. Following a recent message, a person came up to me and told me all about how he/she couldn’t stand Oprah because she doesn’t practice what she preaches or that she couldn’t care about the poor because she owned three homes in different locales. The same was then said about Al Gore and his use of electricity. My frustration is with this idea that as long as the messenger falls short in some way, the message is no longer valid and is not binding or authoritative for me. If this were utilized in church, nobody would take any sermon to heart and nothing would ever get done. At what point must we forgive the concrete form in which the message takes shape and allow the message to break out of its inevitable inadequate embodiment?

 

Venting My Frustrations

Am I wrong for thinking,

“Yeah, eight Alabama kids dying in a tornado really sucks, but that’s nothing compared to the *insert exponential number* of kids who die every *insert time period* from *insert horrible cause of death* in *insert deprived country*.”

Ann Nicole Smith dies, and we talk about it until the resurrection. An uncle makes some preschool kids smoke pot, and it’s all over local and national news. Some kids die from a tornado, and it’s a top story. But some African kids get abducted and either killed or forced to be soldiers, or they die of horrible, yet easily treatable, diseases, and the news acts like they haven’t even heard of Africa. Even the nice soldiers who died this morning in Iraq will be quickly forgotten, their names never known by the national public. If it wasn’t for Ann Curry, we wouldn’t have even known they were dead.

Don’t get me wrong. Eight kids dying is bad, really, really bad, but when shit like this happens, we act like it’s never happened before, like our country is the only place in the world that knows about suffering. We obsess over the details, having a hard time understanding how God could let such things happen. Yet, this is nothing compared to the pain parents all over the world feel when their children are senselessly killed by other humans, not natural disasters. If my kid died in a tornado, that would really suck. But if my kid died because some messed up guy shot him/her, or because a small portion of the world was hording the resources my family needed to live, then that would be really, really fucked up .

Am I out of line?

 

God Loves Everyone

The previous post made me think about a recent song I’ve listened to. It’s Mark Erelli’s “God Loves Everyone”. Here are the lyrics:

God loves everyone
Like a mother loves her son
No strings at all, Unconditional
Never one to judge
Would never hold a grudge
‘Bout what’s been done
God loves everyone

There are no gates in heaven
Everyone gets in
Queer or straight
Souls of every faith
Hell is in our minds
Hell is in this life
But when it’s gone
God takes everyone

Its love is like a womb
It’s like the air from room to room
It surrounds us all
The living and the dead
May we never lose the thread
That bound us all

The killer in his cell
The atheist as well
The pure of heart
And the wild at heart
Are all worthy of its grace
It’s written in the face
Of everyone
God loves everyone

There’s no need to be saved
No need to be afraid
Cause when it’s done
God takes everyone
God loves everyone

What do you ‘plasts think? It definately pushes my beliefs, but, I kind of like it.

 

Anne Lamott on theoplasty

“You can safely assume that you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”- Anne Lamott

 

Blind Faith

This Washington Post article should be considered required reading for all theoplasts, actual and potential.

[Thanks, W, for the link.]

 

I Am A Rock

So said Simon. Maybe it was Garfunkel.

I think it was Simon.

Anyway, I had this thought yesterday during worship. Something in the alignment of the stars and the planets was affecting my usually cynical self, and I was not preoccupied with the negative thoughts that usually make themselves known during that hour or so of corporate worship. I felt charitable. Beneficent, even. Instead of scolding my fellow church-goers for their poor theology or miserable hymns, I merely participated and thought, “Well, they’re doing the best they can.”

And then, other thoughts (formed, in part, by a post I read on someone’s blog, to which I shall not link for I am not certain we want to broadcast this little project quite yet), came to mind.

I have written before, in other venues, about my distrust of our current “liturgy.” I have stated that I believe we are formed and shaped into people by our worship, and quite frankly, most times I don’t trust the college-aged chappie up front with his “close your eyes” and “ask Jesus into your heart” and “Jesus, you’re the greatest boyfriend, like, ever” schtick. If I wanted to be transformed into an unthinking, overly-emotional, girlfriend of Jesus, then I’d be all over that stuff. But, call me crazy, I think we should be a bit more careful with what we’re putting out there.

So, I Am A Rock.

If I, if we, imagine ourselves as rocks, the stream we place ourselves in becomes very important. We could rehash the ex opere discussion here (or wonder if something *magical* happens when we worship, whether we’re singing the latest ditty from ZOE or Stamps-Baxter or Luther himself), but I think we all agree that what happens during that time is important. Like the un-named blogger said, there are BIG events in life that shape us. These would be the chisel blows, the collisions with other rocks, the lightning bolts that turn the water that has seeped into our cracks and crevasses into steam with explosive force, shearing off big chunks of our rock-ness. These, however, are for the most part unscripted.

Liturgy, however, is the stream, the flow of water bearing sandy particles that, over time, wear down our rough edges, make us smooth, shape us. Note: the first person to talk about being a smooth stone for use in the Lord’s slingshot gets docked five points!

Now, I have never served on a worship committee, so I am not speaking from experience, but what if the first order of business every week was to decide “What sort of people do we want to form here?” and not “Do we have the proper balance of new songs and old songs?” or “Has the worship team practiced this new song enough to lead us?”

Are there any “liturgical” services at any of the congregations in our little tribe?

 

Of Protests and Pickets

I was chatting recently with a friend who ministers for a moderately-sized church in a very large city.  He mentioned that he and a few other ministers were going to try to start a group that was focused on social action (our particular tribe of Christians has not had a great track record in this arena).

Q wrote recently wondering why we Christians seem to get very energized and excited about partisan politics, but barely register a pulse (it seems) when it comes to matters of faith.

One of my mentors talked about his time as a student at a Christian college during the Vietnam war and about his experience with protests and pickets and times of singing anti-war songs.

So this leads me to wonder (we do seem to be getting off to a very questioning start, don’t we?): Why don’t we protest anymore?

Surely there are things about which we are passionate enough to raise our voices, or to step away from our Lost and 24 and SportsCenter for an hour or two of marching.  Maybe it is because of issues Q raised initially, that we are more concerned with partisan issues, and are therefore more likely to show up at a Republican rally or an Obama book-signing.

Are we just not aware of the great injustices around us (doubtful), do we not trust enough in the political structures to correct the injustices (more likely), or do we just not give a damn(most likely)?

 

Shift_allegiance

This “Out of Context” quote from the Out of Ur blog popped up in my RSS feeds this morning. I thought it appropriate for sharing here, based on what appear to be some shared beliefs on the state of our churches:

“Few people see Christianity as a shift of allegiance that prompts us to make personal changes in beliefs, habits, and lifestyles. We must continually examine our churches to make sure our message is one that requires transformation.”- Sarah Cunningham

When was the last time your church leadership held a meeting to examine whether or not they were “requiring” transformation? In our numerocentric church cultures, it seems like requiring anything is frowned upon. .