Commentary

In Greed We Trust

Greedlock and the god of fiduciary responsibility: The question of idolatry is with us still

by Ken Sehested

       You likely heard recently that former hedge fund manager-turned-entreperneur Martin Shkreli’s company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, bought the patent to a drug treating toxoplasmosis, a potentially deadly parasite disease, increasing the per pill cost from $13.50 to $750. (Before being sold several previous times, the Daraorun medication per pill cost was $1.00.)

        Now San Diego-based Imprimis Pharmaceuticals has announced it would manufacture customized versions of the drug for less than $1.00 (though the Federal Drug Administration has yet to sanction the new drug).

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Resolution in support of community investing

Putting a portion of household, congregational and denominational money where our mouths are

A statement of resolve unanimously approved by participants in the
28-30 March 2008 Alliance of Baptists Convocation, New Orleans
(a similar resolution was approved in June 2008 by the United Church of Christ Southern Conference)

Written and submitted by Ken Sehested

Beware, God warns, lest you say in your heart,
“My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.”
—Deuteronomy 8:11-17

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Good news report from Gerald

First prayer&politiks annual report

A note from Gerald, prayer&politiks’ guardian angel and synod convener

GOOD NEWS!  The advisory synod overseeing the vision and mission of prayer&politiks has heartily recommended another year of work.

When prayer&politiks began in November 2014, the commitment was for one year, to assess whether the need and the support was evident. In September we employed a communications consultant to help with evaluation. Her conclusions: both the quantity and the quality of the survey returns were “exceptional.”

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When hope is aroused

by "Ghost," a maximum security prisoner

When hope is aroused—or even the possibility of that hope’s approach—the body, of it’s own accord, fills with a reservoir of bated breath, as though preparing for the shouts of joy and happiness, victory and triumph, that are sure to come, no longer checked by the dams of possibility and doubt shored with the black mortar of cynicism.

Unfortunately, this air, this breath, this Spirit, must go somewhere. No man, no woman, can live long with held breath! But where? Where, if disappointment is strapped to the back of the dawn, yet again, like a plow whose dull blade knifes through hearts swollen with hope?

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Thomas Merton

A special edition of "Signs of the Times" featured quotes from that most unusual monk

Selected and edited by Ken Sehested

Introduction: A special issue of “Signs of the Times” devoted to Thomas Merton (31 January 1915 – 10 December 1968) quotes was already in the works, to mark the centennial of his birth. But when Pope Francis, in his historic address to a joint session of Congress, lifted Merton's name for special recognition (along with three other Americans), it seemed timely to move up the schedule. (Continue reading Ken Sehested’s "Introduction: The Quotable Thomas Merton.")

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Thomas Merton

A special edition of "Signs of the Times" featured quotes from that most unusual monk

Selected and edited by Ken Sehested

Introduction: A special issue of “Signs of the Times” devoted to Thomas Merton (31 January 1915 – 10 December 1968) quotes was already in the works, to mark the centennial of his birth. But when Pope Francis, in his historic address to a joint session of Congress, lifted Merton's name for special recognition (along with three other Americans), it seemed timely to move up the schedule. (Continue reading Ken Sehested’s "Introduction: The Quotable Thomas Merton.")

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Bombs and balm

Remembering Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffit

by Ken Sehested

        Recently declassified documents confirmed what many had long suspected, that former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet ordered the 1976 assassination of former diplomat Orlando Letelier, along with his colleague, Ronni Karpen Moffit, in Washington, DC. This news is of especially personal significance.

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“God acted as a father who has two daughters”

A theological rationale for the conquest of the Americas

       Writing 1571 in opposition to Bartolomé de las Casas’ advocay for indigeneous citizens of the Americas, an unnamed Spanish church official in Peru penned the following parable as a theological rationale for conquest:

       "God acted . . . as a father who has two daughters: one very white, full of grace and gentility; the other very ugly, bleary-eyed, stupid and bestial. If the first is to be married, she doesn't need a dowry, but only to be put in the palace and those who want to marry her would compete for her. For the ugly, stupid, foolish wretch, it isn't enough to give her a large dowry, many jewels, lovely magnificent, and expensive clothes. . . .

Diego Rivera, 1951, Palacio Nacional in Ciudad de México

       "God did the same for us. Certainly we were all unfaithful, be it Europe or Asia; but in their natural state they have great beauty, much science and discretion. Little was needed for the apostles and apostolic men to betroth those souls with Jesus Christ by the faith of baptism.

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Witness to villainy

An excerpt from Bartolomé de las Casas’ documentation of Spanish conquest in the Americas

       If you want to read about a European pioneer on Columbus Day, learn about Bartolomé de las Casas. His story is one of unfolding repentance over the course of his life in regard to treatment of the indigenous population of the Spanish conquest of the “New World.”

        Born in 1484, Las Casas first traveled to the island of Hispaniola in 1502 along with his father, a Spanish merchant. Initially he participated in and profited from Spain’s enslavement of the population. In 1510 he was the first priest to be ordained in the Americas.

Right: Statue of Bartolomé de las Casas in San Cristóbal, Chiapas, Mexico.

        That same year a group of Spanish Dominicans arrived in Santo Domingo, and they were appalled at the injustices. Specifically, the Dominican Fray Antonio de Montesinos expressed public outrage, which had a significant effect on Las Casas and, in time, prompted him to become an equally outspoken opponent of the conquest.

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Another world is possible

Introduction to "We Are the Socks," Dan Buttry's new book

by Ken Sehested

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood
and assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them
to long for the endless immensity of the sea."
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery

            What Dan Buttry does in We Are the Socks is what he does better than anyone I know: Write vivid, easy-to-read narratives that are hopeful but not sentimental, honest but not cynical, revealing without being voyeuristic, personal without being self-serving, sometimes humorous but never silly. And the people he writes about, in these few selected episodes out of literally dozens of others from his global work, are not drawn from self-selected elites—the morally heroic or intelligent or ingenious. Mostly they are commonplace folk, drawn from every sort of circumstance, typical admixtures of hope and doubt, compassion and malice, vision and blind sightedness. Not your stereotypical candidates for sainthood. In other words, folk like us, like the ones in our churches and neighborhoods and families.

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