Recent

US citizens should be very wary of any US rationale for an attack on Iran

by Ken Sehested

        The dogs of war threatening full scale conflict between the US and Iran are straining their respective leashes. Iran openly admits that it shot down a US drone, claiming it was over Iranian territorial waters—by international law, extending 12 miles from a country’s coast line.

        The US claims the drone was over international waters, doing so under the terms of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of Seas (UNCLOS). Complicating matters: Oman, across the Strait of Hormuz, also has legal claim to a 12-mile territorial sovereign claim. Yet at its narrowest point, the Strait of Hormuz is only 21 miles wide.

        Understand, though, that neither the US nor Iran ratified the UNCLOS.

        The international legal norms are tangled and in dispute, to such a degree that both the US and Iran can justify their respective claims, since the US is relying on the international custom known as the “doctrine of innocent passage or transit passage.” (And that’s a whole ‘nuther complicated story. For more background on these matters, see Susan Simpson, “Is the Strait of Hormuz Governed by Treaty or by Customary International Law?” The View From LL2.)

        Adding yet more threat, on 11 June the US joint chiefs of staff posted its updated “Nuclear Operations” rules of engagement which makes it easier to undertake limited nuclear strikes, saying “Using nuclear weapons could create conditions for decisive results and the restoration of strategic stability.” But within a week the Pentagon removed that document from its website. Now it’s available only through a restricted access electronic library.

        Why has this narrow waterway been such a flashpoint for US military vigilance? Nearly a quarter of the world’s oil is shipped through this channel. The US will soon be a net exporter of fossil fuels (for the first time in 70 years). But control of this essential resource exerts a profound influence on US foreign policy. Remember, it was former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who said, "Oil is much too important a commodity to be left in the hands of the Arabs."

        The takeaway from all this? US citizens should be very wary of any US rationale for an attack on Iran. Given our history—such as the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, where President Johnson manufactured a non-existent strike by North Vietnam on a US naval vessel, the incident that launched the Vietnam War; and the fabricated stories of Iraq having weapons of mass destruction, which launched the Iraq War—we must demand a higher, more stringent bar of evidence for any attack on Iran. (Not to mention that our Constitution requires an act of Congress to declare war.)

        [For a faith based statement opposing any US attack on Iran, see “We Say No, Again: Baiting Iran toward a dangerous collision”]

        The US has legitimate policy grievances against Iran. Few here remember, however, that Iran has legitimate grievances against the US. Here are but three egregious examples.

        1. Those include the fact that in 1953 the CIA overthrew the democratically-elected government of Iran and installed a dictator whose brutal reign lasted until the Shah’s overthrow in 1979. (We remember the US hostages taken, but not the triggering cause.) We then sold the shah boatloads of advanced weaponry to guarantee our cheap access to Iranian oil.

        2. During the 1980s war between Iraq and Iran, the US removed Iraq from its “state sponsors of terrorism” list in order to expedite weapons transfers to the country—then our preferred ally in the region—as well as providing crucial military intelligence to Saddam Hussein. Among the weapons sold to Iraq were ingredients for Hussein’s chemical weapons which he used against Iran and then on his own Kurdish minority population.

        3. In 1988 the US Navy shot down an Iranian passenger plane, flying in Iranian airspace, killing all 290 passengers. President Reagan admitted “regrets,” saying the Navy ship’s commander thought it was an Iranian military jet.

        Not to mention the fact that the US has more than two dozen military bases in the nations that border Iran and enforcement of a crushing schedule of economic sanctions.

        Because of interlocking rivalries and alliances in that region, an outright attack by the US on Iran risks a dramatic escalation of conflict involving several nations (as well as non-state but heavily armed actors). It is a dangerous, foolhardy gambit. On this 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, we need to pause and consider the costs: One political assassination in 1914 led to more than 20 countries joining the fray, at a cost of 37 million casualties.

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Ken Sehested is curator of prayerandpolitiks.org, an online journal at the intersection of spiritual formation and prophetic action.

News, views, notes, and quotes

Signs of the Times  •  13 June 2019 •  No. 195

Processional. “Ain’t a That Good News,” performed by the combined Boston Chidren’s Chorus and the Chicago Children’s Choir.

Above: Iceland's volcano, Hekla, erupted at the same time that auroras were visible overhead. Photo by Sigurdur H. Stefmisson.

Special issue
GOOD NEWS – SHORT NOTES AND BRIEF STORIES

Preface

"I believe that I shall see the goodness of God in the land of the living,"
—Psalm 27:13

        When preparing each issue of “Signs of the Times,” I intentionally look for bits of good news to leaven the litany of fraud and wreckage that fills our many news feeds.

        Part of the problem in finding good news is that such information does not easily catch the eye. Local newscasts tend to give disproportionate attention to carnage because it’s cheaper to find—just monitor first responders’ communications for directions to the latest wreck or shooting or wildfire. Or the weather channel, which salivates over devastating storm coverage.

        On top of that, scandal in the body politic appeals to a deep-seated human attraction to dirty linen and ignominy, often all out of proportion to newsworthiness.

        Which is why we all have to work at looking for and lifting up the overlooked evidence that life is different from cable news. Make it a habit; consider it to be among your spiritual disciplines.

Invocation. “From the cowardice of accepting new truth, from the laziness of being satisfied with half-truth, from the arrogance of thinking we know all the truth: Deliver us, O Lord.” —from "A Wee Worship Book," Wild Goose Worship Group

Call to worship. "Heaven and earth are threads of one loom." —anonymous, quoted in "By Shaker Hands" by June Sprigg

I confess I’m head-over-heels in awe of Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager who was recently awarded Amnesty International’s coveted “Ambassador of Conscience Award for 2019, on behalf of the Fridays for Future [aka Youth Strike 4 Climate] movement of school children demanding bold action to address the global climate crisis.

        [For more on that, see Amnesty International.  Also, watch this short (4:12) video of Thunberg and fellow “school strikers for climate change” from around the world.]  —continue reading “Greta Thunberg: When the muted find a voice”

¶ “Despite an epidemic of childhood obesity, the cholesterol levels of American kids have been improving over the past 20 years, a new study shows. Researchers found that since 1999, levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol among US children and teens have declined, while levels of "good" HDL cholesterol have risen.” Researchers can’t point to one specific reason; but clearly the educational-advocacy work of individuals and organizations to shine a light on the need for improved eating habits is working. —Amy Norton, Healthday News

¶ “Judge throws out Trump order and restores Obama-era drilling ban in Arctic.” —Juliet Eilperin, LA Times

¶ “With the signing of House Bill 307 [in April], Maryland made history by becoming the first state in the Union to establish a state-wide commission dedicated to investigating racial terror lynchings in the United States. The Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission provides an opportunity for the state to take a significant step in making peace with its African American communities.” —Nicholas Creary, Baltimore Sun

¶ “France Becomes The First Country To Ban All Five Pesticides Linked To Bee Deaths.” —Herbs Info (Thanks Kristin.)

¶ 22 May 2019 “marks the official launch of Covering Climate Now, a project co-sponsored by The Columbia Journalism Review and The Nation. Joined by The Guardian and others partners to be announced, Covering Climate Now will bring journalists and news outlets together to dramatically improve how the media as a whole covers the climate crisis and its solutions.

        Read a portion of , “What if we covered the climate crisis like we did the start of the second world war?” —Guardian

¶ “Iceland has made it illegal to pay women less than men.” —Emma Willis, Business Insider

Janet Mills, Maine’s governor, has signed a bill making the state the first to prohibit public schools, colleges, and universities from using Native American symbols as mascots. —David Williams, CNN

Connecticut will soon become the 7th state to provide paid time off to new parents and caregivers. —Mark Pazniokas, CT Mirror

Short story. By the time Lélia and Sabastião Salgado took over their family’s historic ranch in the Minas Gerais region of Brazil, its tree coverage was mostly gone and the wildlife had disappeared. “The land,” said Salgado, “was as sick as I was.”

        The couple decided rebuild the formerly lush rain forest. Twenty years later “hundreds of species of flora and fauna call the former cattle ranch home. In addition to 293 species of trees, the land now teems with 172 species of birds, 33 species of mammals, and 15 species of amphibians and reptiles—many of which are endangered,” and dried-up springs have returned. —Kelly Richman Abdou, My Modern Met

More than 400,000 people have toured the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, in its first year; currently, attendance is averaging 3,000 per day. —Brad Harper, Montgomery Advertiser

Word. “The threat of the world today is lied about every time you open your computer or switch on your phone. Terror lives in your pocket, on a device that does not differentiate between wisdom, information, propaganda, and deceit. The good news is that you can learn more than ever before, connect quicker, and heal yourself (some of the world’s great healers and healing techniques are mobile apps). The challenge—and the invitation —is that you need to learn how to edit what you're seeing. No one else will do that for you—indeed, it is in the interests of the military-industrial-entertainment-gossip-complex that you stay unconscious, and click on as many links as possible.” —Gareth Higgins & Brian McClaren, “Us, Them, and the End of Violence: A Lenten Journey”

¶ “Sikhs around the world are taking part in a scheme to plant a million new trees as a ‘gift to the entire planet.’ The project aims to reverse environmental decline and help people reconnect with nature as part of celebrations marking 550 years since the birth of the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak.” —Isabella Kaminski, Guardian

        For more background on Sikhs, see Simran Jeet Singh, “Who are the Sikhs and what are their beliefs?” —Religion News

Left: Cape Town South Africa school children strike for climate change. Reuters photo.

¶  “The world is literally a greener place than it was 20 years ago, and the data from NASA satellites has revealed a counterintuitive source for much of this new foliage: China and India. This surprising new study shows that the two emerging countries with the world’s biggest populations are leading the improvement in greening on land. The effect stems mainly from ambitious tree planting programs in China and intensive agriculture in both countries. In 2017 alone, India broke its own world record for the most trees planted after volunteers gathered to plant 66 million saplings in just 12 hours.” —Good News Network (Thanks Jaroslav.)

¶ “Tired of receiving notices warning that their drinking water may have been compromised and having little recourse to fight corporate polluters, voters in Toledo, Ohio approved a measure granting Lake Erie some of the same legal rights as a human being. Sixty-one percent of voters in Tuesday's special election voted in favor of Lake Erie's Bill of Rights, which allows residents to take legal action against entities that violate the lake's rights to ‘flourish and naturally evolve’ without interference.

        “The initiative was modeled on ‘rights to nature’ laws which have passed in Lafayette, Colorado; by the Ponca Nation of Oklahoma and the Chippewa Nation in Minnesota; and countries including India and Nepal.” —, Common Dreams

Preach it. “Our civilization is being sacrificed for the opportunity of a very small number of people to continue making enormous amounts of money. Our biosphere is being sacrificed so that rich people in countries like mine can live in luxury. It is the sufferings of the many which pay for the luxuries of the few.” —Greta Thunberg

¶ “[P]eople all around the world are banding together to make the UN Sustainable Development Goals a reality. Child mortality is decreasing every year, while a health infrastructure that helps women find skilled obstetric care is lessening maternal deaths in Ethiopia. The Democratic Republic of Congo has a program training health workers that is aimed at making vital medical care more accessible.

        • “Three women in Afghanistan are running their own veterinary clinic and teaching the importance of education to change attitudes and stifle gender inequality. Dr. Devi Shetty, a cardiac surgeon in India, set up an affordable healthcare company called Narayana Health to provide low cost, high quality healthcare and now has more than 20 medical centers in India.

        • “In 2016, Costa Rica successfully powered its electrical grid with renewable energy for 113 consecutive days, and private sectors in Malawi are creating custom-built portable water filters for households lacking access to safe drinking water, lessening the risk of contracting water-borne diseases by half.

        • “On a larger scale, the country of Rwanda became the first low-income country to provide universal eye-care to its entire population. Although this might seem like a trivial cause compared to fighting poverty, if uneducated parents—particularly mothers—can keep their eyesight sharp, they can continue working their jobs and their work won’t deteriorate as they age.” —Sarah Westbrook, “UN Sustainable Development Goals: What Progress Has Been Made?”, Seeds of Hope

Right: 'Mother Earth' by textile artist Galla Grotto

Can’t makes this sh*t up. (The good news is that this was uncovered.) "Redistricting is like an election in reverse! It's a great event," he said with a smile at a National Conference of State Legislatures event in 2000. "Usually the voters get to pick the politicians. In redistricting, the politicians get to pick the voters!" That was Republican strategist and electoral mapmaker Thomas Hofeller, speaking at a National Conference of State Legislatures event in 2000. A key proponent of adding a “citizenship” question to the 2020 census, Hofeller promised that efforts to redraw electoral maps would be “advantageous to Republican and Non-Hispanic Whites.”  After his death in 2018 his daughter found massive amounts of computer files revealing electoral rigging proposals. —for more see Miles Parks, NPR

Call to the table. “We’re asking adults to step up alongside us . . . today, so many of our parents are busy discussing whether our grades are good, or a new diet or the Game of Thrones finale—whilst the planet burns. But to change everything, we need everyone. It is time for all of us to unleash mass resistance . . . if we [demand change] in numbers we have a chance.” —Greta Thunberg

Graduation season. This is the most extraordinary graduation speech I’ve ever heard, from Asheville High School class of 2019 valedictorian Ascher Walker Williams. (8 minutes)

Father’s day specials

        • Dad’s were meant for many things. Among them, to be apostles of encouragement and delight for their children. You can never plan these things in advance. But if an opportunity (of who knows what sort) comes your way, be this kind of dad. (3:01 video. Thanks Blake.)

        •Be like this dad. (0:30 video. Thanks Dick.)

        • And this dad. (0:50 video. Thanks Kimberly.)

Best one-liner. “Storms make trees take deeper roots.” —Dolly Parton

For the beauty of the earth. 10 good news stories re. environmental affairs. —from “Words Presents” (2:01. Thanks Faye.)

Recessional. “Rhapsody in Blue,” George Gershwin. A bit of trivia about the song: “The opening clarinet glissando came into being at rehearsal when, as a joke on Gershwin, Whiteman’s virtuoso clarinetist exaggerated the opening measure adding what he considered a humorous touch to the passage. Gershwin told him to play it that way at the concert and to add as much wailing as possible.” —Good News Network

Lectionary for this Sunday. “The voice of Wisdom,” a litany for worship inspired by Proverbs 8

Lectionary for Sunday next. “Elijah’s pity party,” a litany for worship inspired by 1 Kings 19: 1-15

Just for fun. Amazing Cirque de Soleil jump rope artist. (2:55 video)

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Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “Fire and Fury: Reading Elijah in light of Charlottesville,” a sermon rooted in 1 Kings 19:1-18 by Nancy Hastings Sehested

• “Greta Thunberg: When the muted find a voice”

• "Elijah’s pity party,” a litany for worship inspired by 1 Kings 19:1-15

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Language not otherwise indicated above is that of the editor, as are those portions cited as “kls.” Don’t let the “copyright” notice keep you from circulating material you find here (and elsewhere in this site). Reprint permission is hereby granted in advance for noncommercial purposes.

Feel free to copy and post any original art on this site. (The ones with “prayerandpolitiks.org” at the bottom.) As well as other information you find helpful.

Your comments are always welcomed. If you have news, views, notes or quotes to add to the list above, please do. If you like what you read, pass this along to your friends. You can reach me directly at kensehested@prayerandpolitiks.org.

 

Greta Thunberg

When the muted find a voice

by Ken Sehested, with extensive quotes from Jonathan Watts, “Greta Thunberg, schoolgirl climate change warrior: ‘’”, The Guardian

        I confess I’m head-over-heels in awe of Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager who was recently awarded Amnesty International’s coveted “Ambassador of Conscience Award for 2019, on behalf of the Fridays for Future movement of school children demanding bold action to address the global climate crisis.

        [For more on that, see Amnesty International. Also, watch this short (4:12) video of Thunberg and fellow “school strikers for climate change” from around the world.]

        Then 15, Thunberg was considered little more than a curiosity when, in August 2018, she began skipping school to hold vigil outside Sweden’s parliament. She sat rather forlornly against the building with her hand-painted sign, which read skolstrejk för klimatet (school strike for climate), calling on Swedish legislators to take climate change seriously.

        What an odd duck, we might say in English; or one joker short of a full deck. No doubt some thought hers was a cute gesture, “brave” only in the sense of how we dismiss people with fanciful grasp of reality. In effect, foolhardy. Harmless, really; but harebrained, nonetheless.

        Truth is, Thunberg is a little loony. Literally, she has been diagnosed with “selective mutism,” a condition on the Asperger diagnostic scale of mental health disorders. Her symptoms exhibit a “childhood anxiety disorder characterized by a an inability to speak and communicate effectively in select social settings.”

        People of the Book will recall an ancient story, about a man named Moses (cf. Exodus 4:10), who tried to beg off a public leadership task because he wasn't good with words.

        “People with selective mutism have a tendency to worry more than others. Thunberg has since weaponised this in meetings with political leaders, and with billionaire entrepreneurs in Davos. ‘I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act,’ she told them.

        “In this regard, her family see her Asperger’s as a blessing. She is someone who strips away social distractions and focuses with black-and-white clarity on the issues. ‘It’s nothing that I want to change about me,’ she says. ‘It’s just who I am. If I had been just like everyone else and been social, then I would have just tried to start an organisation. But I couldn’t do that. I’m not very good with people, so I did something myself instead.’”

        “I don’t care if what I’m doing – what we’re doing – is hopeful. We need to do it anyway. Even if there’s no hope left and everything is hopeless, we must do what we can.”

        It is we who live with cognitive dissonance.

Right: Greta Thunberg is greeted by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker at the February meeting of the European Economic and Social Committee meeting in Brussels, drawing legislators and business leaders across the continent.  At this meeting, Juncker indicated that the European Union is pledging a quarter of $1 trillion budget over the next seven years to address the crisis of a rapidly heating planet. In the financial period beginning in 2021, Juncker said, the EU will devote a quarter of its budget to solving the crisis.

        “There are no comfortable reassurances in her speech, just a steady frankness. Asked whether she has become more optimistic because the climate issue has risen up the political agenda and politicians in the US and Europe are considering green New Deals that would ramp up the transition to renewable energy, her reply is brutally honest. ‘No, I am not more hopeful than when I started. The emissions are increasing and that is the only thing that matters. I think that needs to be our focus. We cannot talk about anything else.’”

        “On social media, there have been other crude attacks on Thunberg’s reputation and appearance. Already familiar with bullying from school, she appears unfazed. ‘I expected when I started that if this is going to become big, then there will be a lot of hate,’ she says. ‘It’s a positive sign. I think that must be because they see us as a threat. That means that something has changed in the debate, and we are making a difference.’”

        I will never again read the Prophet Isaiah's breath taking vision of Creation's promised fulfillment, including the line about how "a little child shall lead" (11:6), without thinking about Greta Thunberg.

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There are numerous excerpts on the web of Thunberg speaking. Among the brief ones, here is one of my favorites, when she addressed the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24) conference in Katowice, Poland.

©ken sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

 

Elijah’s pity party

A litany for worship inspired by 1 Kings 19: 1-15

by Ken Sehested

Sometimes knees grow weak and hearts grow faint.

Sometimes vision grows dim and resolve wavers.

Sometimes we simply want Jesus to leave us alone.

The prophets, like the great Elijah, get frightened by the King Ahabs and the Queen Jezebels of this age.

Prophets get weary.

No one listens. No one pays attention.

The devil has every appearance of being in charge.

Every day brings more evidence that the market is rigged,

that when the rich wage war it is the poor that die,

that the cries of persistent widows no longer reach corrupt judges.

In the middle of this pity party, surrounded by history’s storms and quakes and wildfires, the sound of overpowering silence brings us to attention.

And a voice of stone-cold stillness settles in and announces,

“Get over yourself. Who said you are alone? You don’t know the half of it!”

Then, just as abruptly, comes the word, “Saddle up. Boots on. Face to the wind. Hat pulled low. Time to move.”

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©ken sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

T.S. Eliot’s Pentecostal agenda

Refined by Pentecost’s blaze or consumed by war's conflagration

by Ken Sehested

        Pentecost Sunday is far and away my favorite moment on the church’s liturgical calendar.

        It wasn’t always so. In fact, I grew up with inherited suspicion of “Pentecostal” Christians. Their rambunctious style of worship—speaking in “tongues,” ecstatic trances, slayings in the spirit and, generally, excitable emotions—were considered reprobate in my pietist-revivalist culture. We had our amen corners, but other outbursts were frowned upon. Such intrusions into more restrained Baptist sanctuaries were considered divisive and inflammatory.

        I have this bit of news in my files as illustration. When Southern Baptists in Georgia came to their 1998 convention meeting, among the first orders of business was to vote on two proposed constitutional amendments for congregational membership in the body, both being causes for being “disfellowshiped.” The first was endorsement of homosexual behavior; the second, engaging “in non-biblical charismatic worship practices.”

        (“Pentecostal” and “charismatic” now are used interchangeably, though the traditions have different origins, the latter arising within socially marginalized populations—interestingly, the earliest institutions were significantly interracial.)

        It wasn’t until I chose chapters 2 and 4 in the book of Act as the subject of my seminary master’s thesis—an exegetical and historical study, with particular focus on the “community of goods” accounts—did I come to see how socially incendiary this narrative is.

        The story begins in chapter two, specifically naming a long list of nationalities present on that day in Jerusalem. The miracle of the fracture of linguistic boundaries—“each one heard [the disciples’ preaching] in their own native language”—represents a larger symbolic framework, with “tongues of fire” representing the presence of the Holy Spirit, which then overturned a profound horizon of social fragmentation, including economic sharing, and the Spirit being poured out without reference to age or gender or nationality.

        This is when I began understanding Pentecost as God’s Resurrection Movement (the birthday of the church) resulting from God’s Resurrection Moment (at Easter).

        Pentecost represents not so much the reversal of the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11—though in Acts there is an implicit rejection of the human hubris to “make a name for ourselves” outside the providence of God. The diffusion of many languages in the Babel story does not become univocal in the Acts story. But now all can “hear” each other. Babel is consummated.

        Nevertheless, the prophetic acts of spiritually-infused social regeneration begun at Pentecost are as threatening to current ordering as fiercely as ever. The Commonwealth of God will, everywhere and always until the end of days, be seen as subversive to the rulers of this broken, bounded, and troublesome age.

        Pentecost, T.S. Eliot wrote in his poem, “Little Gidding,” written after he survived the German bombing of London in 1941-42, occasions a fateful choice:

        “The only hope, or else despair / Lies in the choice of pyre . . . / To be redeemed from fire by fire.” Namely, to be refined by Pentecost’s blaze or consumed by war's conflagration.

        This is Pentecost's agenda. From what other purpose, or from what other premise, are we to proceed?

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©ken sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

“By what authority do I preach?”

Background

On October 19, 1987, the Shelby County Baptist Association held its annual meeting at Audobon Park Baptist Church. Some weeks earlier a group of pastors meeting at Bellevue Baptist Church had assigned the Credentials Committee to investigate the “doctrinal soundness” of Prescott Memorial Baptist Church for having called a female pastor, Rev. Nancy Hastings Sehested. The Committee reported to the annual meeting that its investigation revealed that Prescott had been able to give both historical and Scriptural bases for its decision, and that in view of varying practices among member churches it would be unfair to single out one church for action. The messengers rejected the Committee’s report, and a motion was made to withdraw fellowship from Prescott for “irregularities that may threaten the fellowship of the Association.” The motion carried. While the motion was being debated, Rev. Sehested rose to speak, and a motion was made to cut off debate. After some confusion she was permitted to speak. She walked to the pulpit so she could face the audience, which was largely hostile, and made the following extemporaneous remarks.

I am Nancy Hastings Sehested, messenger from Prescott Memorial Church, pastor of Prescott Memorial Church, and servant of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I am a full-blooded Southern Baptist. My mother is a Southern Baptist deacon. My grandfather was a Southern Baptist minister for 70 of his 93 years. My dad is a retired Southern Baptist minister for 50 years of ordained ministry.

My four siblings were the creative ones in our family, choosing creative careers. But me? No. I decided to follow in my dad’s and granddad’s footsteps and become a pastor.

By what authority do I preach?  That question you ask of me. It is not a new question. It is a question that was asked of our Lord Jesus Christ on a number of occasions. He had not the authority of the religious establishment, not the authority of the state. By what authority did he minister? By the authority of none other than the Holy Spirit that moved in his midst.

And so by what authority do I preach and bear witness to my faith? By the authority of the Southern Baptist Convention? By the authority of the Shelby County Baptist Association? By the authority of Prescott Memorial Baptist Church? No. No, my brothers and sister. By the authority of the Lordship of Jesus Christ, who did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, becoming a servant.

And following in his footsteps, as a servant of Jesus Christ, who took the towel and basin of water and exemplified the kind of servanthood that each one of us is called to live under, I found a towel with my name on it.

And each one of us has a towel with our name on it.

And who was it that taught me this wonderful freedom of the spirit? My Sunday School teachers. My pastor. My Southern Baptist church, who nurtured me and said, “God calls each one of us, so listen! Listen, Nancy!” And so I listened. They never said, “God calls each of you and with God everything is possible, remember, except to be able to stand behind a pulpit. Women can’t do that.” They never said that. They said, “With all things—God is able to do all things.”

The winds of the Spirit blow where they will. And we do not know whither they come and whither they go.

No, you’re right. It is not the autonomy of the local church that is under question here. It is not the autonomy of the Shelby County Baptist Association that is under question here. What is facing us is whether or not we will once again say that the freedom of the Holy Spirit is acting among us to call each one of us in whatever way we can to serve our Lord and witness to his light.

And while we are in this place debating about who can or cannot stand behind a piece of wood, there’s a world out there. And the cries of that world are growing louder. There’s a world that is desperately in need of all of us, a hurting world that is desperately needing each one of us to offer a word of healing and hope and the light that we carry within us.

Are we going to say to that world that not all things are possible with God? Are we going to say to that world, “No, not all things are possible. A woman cannot preach!”

But as you know, all things are possible with our God.

And so, what will we do tonight? How will the world hear us tonight?

Peter and John were questioned—by the religious people! They wondered, “How can uncommon and ‘irregular’ people like you preach and heal?”

And what did they say? You’ll remember that what they said was, “Whether it is right in the sight of God, you must judge. But I cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

And whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge. For I cannot but speak of what I have seen and heard of a loving God, of a God who reaches out to each one of us, of a God who calls all kinds of “irregular” people like a murderer like Moses; to be a leader of people; and a persecutor like Paul, to be a leader of the early church; and women and men of all kinds of backgrounds: He transformed their hearts.

Are we going to say no to this incredible God who calls each of us?

You’ll remember that Jesus was questioned about his Biblical interpretation—in his own home town by his people at his church, who wondered if he was reading Scripture right by his interpretation of Isaiah 61. And you’ll remember that they did not like his interpretation because he included people who they thought needed to be excluded.

So I leave you with my testimony.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me
because God has anointed me to preach
      good news to the poor.
God has sent me to proclaim release
      to the captives,
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
Today this Scripture has been fulfilled
      in your hearing.”

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Nancy Hastings Sehested is a founding-co-pastor of Circle of Mercy Congregation, Asheville, NC, and a former maximum security men's prison chaplain. Her book, Marked for Life: A prison chaplain's story, will be published by Orbis Books in August.

News, views, notes, and quotes

Signs of the Times  •  6 June 2019 •  No. 194

Processional. “Veni, Sancte Spiritus” (“Come, Holy Spirit”), Taizé.

Nature’s own “tongues of fire”? Every year for a week or so between late May and mid-June people from around the country (and, this year, as far away as Australia) flock to the Smoky Mountains National Park (near where I live) for a unique occurrence: The annual appearance of synchronous fireflies (Photinus carolinus, aka lightning bugs), the only species in the US whose individuals can synchronize their flashing light patterns, part of their mating display. For more (including other photos and a brief video) see “Ryan Wilusz, “Smokey Mountains synchronous fireflies left us nearly speechless,” Knox News

Preface

Pentecost Sunday is far and away my favorite moment on the church’s liturgical calendar.

        It wasn’t always so. . . .

        Pentecost, T.S. Eliot wrote in his poem, “Little Gidding,” written after he survived the German bombing of London in 1941-42, occasions a fateful choice:

        “The only hope, or else despair / Lies in the choice of pyre . . . / To be redeemed from fire by fire.” Namely, to be refined by Pentecost’s blaze or consumed by the conflagration of war. —continue reading “T.S. Eliot’s Pentecostal agenda: Refined by Pentecost’s blaze or consumed war’s conflagration”

Invocation. “Quit your prayers for quick answers, for quick garden growth, quick flight across the country, quick salvation, and even quick death. Prayers for quick are what got us here. Today, pray only for breath, for in and out, for a chance to join these ancient openings and closings that move at no speed but their own.” — Kateri Boucher, Radical Discipleship

Call to worship. “When Pentecostal power erupts, all heaven’s gonna’ break loose. The boundaries will be compromised; barriers will be broken; and borders will be breached. Economies of privilege will be fractured, and the politics of enmity will be impeached. The revenge of the Beloved is the reversal of Babel’s bequest.” —continue reading “Pentecost,” a litany for worship

The US and Iran have again escalated belligerent threats, counter-threats, and military posturing. US National Security Advisor John Bolton, our nation’s leading warmonger, is the primary instigator behind this dangerous tantrum.

        In 2007 my congregation approved an open letter in opposition to this threat escalation. Then we reaffirmed and reissued that letter again in 2012 when tensions again dominated news headlines.

        “Despite assurances to the contrary from the U.S. Administration, we believe our nation’s leaders may be seriously calculating the benefits and risks of attacking Iran. Our reading of this moment in history, in light of our commitments as citizens and our convictions as followers of Jesus, impels us to oppose such a move.

        “We fear that our political leadership—led by the Administration with the complicity of Congress—is pushing us to the brink of moral, financial, ecological and diplomatic bankruptcy.” —continue reading “We Say NO”

In US media you will hear nothing about Iran other than sound bites and suspicion. Take the 55 minutes needed to watch this fascinating and informing travelogue program from Rick Steeves.

Right: Young Iranian women. Photo from Rick Steeve’s travel program, “Iran.”

¶ Unfortunately, few in the US know the long history of our country’s direct meddling in Iran’s affairs, including our overthrow of its democratically-elected government in 1953. For more background, read “Worried about increasing US-Iran tensions? You should be.”  and “The latest US-Iran dust-up: Reckless baiting . . . again.”

Hymn of praise. “All People,” a song for Pentecos, by Alana Levondoski.

Any and every independent broker of basic human rights and advocate of geopolitical restraint have cause to question Iranian behavior. But what’s fundamentally at stake for the US is the fact that 40% of the world’s oil production flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a 21-mile wide channel that provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean and global markets. The US openly backs—including massive arms sales—far more despotic regimes in the region.

¶ “@BarackObama will attack Iran in order to get re-elected.” —Donald Trump, 17 January 2012

Muslim countries US has bombed or occupied since 1980. Iran (1980, 1987-1988), Libya (1981, 1986, 1989, 2011), Lebanon (1983), Kuwait (1991), Iraq (1991-2011, 2014-), Somalia (1992-1993, 2007-), Bosnia (1995), Saudi Arabia (1991, 1996), Afghanistan (1998, 2001-), Sudan (1998), Kosovo (1999), Yemen (2000, 2002-), Pakistan (2004-) and now Syria (2014-). —Jeff Faux, Huffpost

Confession. “If we can let ourselves go in prayer and speak all that is in our minds and hearts, if we can sit quietly and bear the silence, we will hear all the bits and pieces of ourselves crowding in on us, pleading for our attention. Prayer’s confession begins with this racket, for prayer is noisy with the clamor of all the parts of us demanding to be heard. The clamor is the sound of the great river of being flowing in us.” —Ann and Barry Ulanov

Hymn of supplication. “Hear me Jesus / Hide me in thy wounds / That I may never leave thy side / From all the evil that surrounds me / Defend me and when the call of death arrives / Bid me come to thee.” —Mary Lou Williams, “Anima Christi”

¶ “A pair of British artists have created this stunning installation of 9,000 silhouettes on a D-Day Landings beach to mark international Peace Day. (See photo at left.) The project, named, 'The Fallen' is a tribute to the civilians, German forces and Allies who lost their lives during the Operation Neptune landing on June 6, 1944.” —“1,000s of Stencils Mark Peace Day on Normandy Beach” (Thanks Abigail.)

Prophetic hymn of resolution. “Arise! Arise! / I see the future in your eyes. / To a more perfect union we aspire / And lift our voices from the fire.” —Jean Rohe, “National Anthem: Arise! Arise!” (click the “show more” button to see the full lyrics)

Satire alert. “Donald J. Trump’s bid to become a born-again Christian failed over the weekend after Jesus Christ turned down his friend request, campaign officials have acknowledged.

        “Jesus, who has not generally been active on Facebook, made a rare appearance on the social network on Monday to announce His decision to ignore the presumptive Republican nominee’s request for a personal relationship with Him.

        “In a brief post, Jesus offered the following explanation: ‘Just everything.’” —Andy Borowitz, New Yorker (Thanks Michael.)

Words of assurance. “Hush child. Don’t be afraid. Soon we will be in Zion.” —Kate Hurley, “Hush Child”

Testify. “’To effectively work in that kind of environment, at least in combat, you kind of have to let that dark side out a little bit. I used to call it 'the beast.’ Then when you talk to your kids and wife, you've got to put that away real quick." So said retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Paul Darling about his book, Taliban Safari, about his time in Afghanistan.

        “‘You're a very different person when you're hunting down human beings,’ he says. . . . ‘Civilization has a veneer that allows us to function and to cooperate and not do those bad things,’ he says. ‘I found in combat, and it was frightening to see, how thin the veneer of civilization really is. . . .’”

        “Societal and familial pressure not to share the ugliness has kept entire generations of combat veterans from talking about experiences perceived as just too terrible to share.” —Anne Kniggendorf, “To Answer His Wife's Question, A Kansas City Veteran Wrote A Book About One Day In Afghanistan,” KCUR

Hymn of lament. “In the cold grey light of the sixth of June in the year of forty-four / The Empire Larch sailed out from Poole to join with thousands more / The largest fleet the world had seen, we sailed in close array / And we set our course for Normandy at the dawning of the day / There was not one man in all our crew who know what lay in store” —Jim Radford, “The Shores of Normandy” (Thanks Kimberly.)

30th anniversary. “Tank Man” is the nickname of an unidentified Chinese man who stood in front of a column of tanks leaving Tiananmen Square on 5 June 1989, the morning after the Chinese military had suppressed the Tiananmen Square protests by force. Watch this short (2:35) video. (Thanks Ed.)

On the 100th anniversary of congressional approval of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, giving women the right to vote: It was a complex history, sometimes pitting women’s rights against the demands for racial justice.”

        “The 19th Amendment was colorblind,” said Weiss, adding that leading suffragists felt they needed to reach out to white racists to gain their votes. “The way it was implemented was not.” —Elizabeth Evans, “The complex role of faith in the women’s suffrage movement,” Religion News

Also on the topic of women’s suffrage:

        • Elizabeth Cobbs, “What took so long for women to win the right to vote? Racism is one reason.” —Washington Post

        • “Long ago a lie was told, a lie that laid the foundational bricks of patriarchy. The lie said, “Patriarchy works for everyone – especially men.” But the truth is patriarchy doesn’t work for everyone – even men.” —Erica Whitakercoffee mug and a heated conversation saved me from my self-righteous view of patriarchy,” Baptist News

        • “By autumn, hundreds of women [protesting in 1917 at the White House for the right to vote] had been arrested for obstructing the sidewalk outside the White House. Many of them were sent to prison. Newspapers reported that women were tortured at Occoquan, the Virginia workhouse where several prominent suffragists served time. The idea was “to break us down by inflicting extraordinary humiliation upon us,” Eunice Brannan told The New York Times after her release. . . . Bedding was never washed, and the beans and cornmeal served to prisoners were crawling with maggots. ‘Sometimes the worms float on top of the soup,’ one woman wrote in an affidavit.” —Adrienne LaFrance, “,” Atlantic

Hymn of intercession. “The singing. / There was so much singing then / And this was my pleasure, too. / We all sang, the boys in the field, / The chapels were full of singing. / Here I lie: / I have had pleasure enough; / I have had singing.” —Birmingham Boys Choir, “I Have Had Singing”

Preach it. “So let us pick up the stones over which we stumble, friends, and build altars. Let us listen to the sound of breath in our bodies. Let us listen to the sounds of our own voices, of our own names, of our own fears. Let’s claw ourselves out from the graves we’ve dug. Let’s lick the earth from our fingers. Let us look up and out and around. The world is big and wide and wild and wonderful and wicked, and our lives are murky, magnificent, malleable, and full of meaning. Oremus. Let us pray.” —Pádraig Ó Tuama

Can’t makes this sh*t up. After President Trump’s royal pageantry in London, he flew to County Clare, Ireland, where he rented four limousines for a further eight mile trip to his golf resort near the village of Doonberg. The cost for that short drive? Just short of $1 million, or $116,879 per mile.” —, Guardian

Call to the table. A young child, living with blindness and autism, is out for a stroll on a sunny day. She is drawn to the sound of a busker’s music. This is how we, in our locked-up selves, come to the table and are ushered into the serenity of the Spirit’s serenade.

Best one-liner. "Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine." —Henry David Thoreau

For the beauty of the earth. Swimming Spanish Dancer. (Hexabranchus sanguineus. 0:57 video. Thanks David.)

¶“Texas SandFest — the largest Native-Sand Sculpture Competition in the USA — is an internationally recognized 3-day family event that draws sculptors and tens of thousands of visitors from around the world each year to Sunflower Beach Resort in Port Aransas, Texas. “Liberty Crumbling” by Damon Langlois (pictured at right), won first prize. This year’s event raised $355,000 in donations distributed to area nonprofit organizations. To see additional sand sculpt photos see this link.  (Photo by Kastle Photography. Thanks Pam.)

Altar call. “Tell me what is it you plan to do / With your one wild and precious life?” —Mary Oliver

Benediction. “The fear-tombed, nay-saying, people-pleasing / prisoner of scarcity, shame and threat— / that one has died. / The stone of Outcomes has been rolled away. / The linen grave-clothes of Consequences / are lying abandoned. . . . / Don't live as if you're afraid to be crucified. / Live as if you're already risen.” —Steve Garnaas Holmes, “Already risen”

Recessional. “Ole Time Religion,” Joe Bonamassa. (Thanks James.)

Lectionary for this Sunday. See “Resources for Pentecost Sunday” below.

Lectionary for Sunday next. “The voice of Wisdom,” a litany for worship inspired by Proverbs 8.

Just for fun. The sand pendulum, from the Science Academy. (Thanks Floyd.)

Art at left: Linocut art ©Julie Lonneman

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Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “T.S. Eliot’s Pentecostal agenda: Refined by Pentecost’s blaze or consumed war’s conflagration”

Resources for Pentecost Sunday

• “Pentecostal Passion,” a poem

• “Summon your nerve,” a call to the table on Pentecost Sunday

• “All together,” a litany for Pentecost

• “The promise of Pentecost,” a sermon

• “Adelante—Keep Moving Forward,” a litany for worship 

• “Worthy,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 29 and the Pentecost story in Acts 2

• “Pentecost,” a litany for worship

• “Kindle slavery’s funeral pyre,” a litany for worship inspired by Exodus 13:17-22 & the story of Pentecost in Acts 2

• “Why Psalm 104:35 needs to be included in the reading for Pentecost Sunday (Year A),” brief commentary

• “Day of Pentecost choral reading,” a choral reading script for nine voices
 
Other features

• “Dad’s ‘Heart Shield’ Bible,” a D-Day remembrance of my Dad

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Language not otherwise indicated above is that of the editor, as are those portions cited as “kls.” Don’t let the “copyright” notice keep you from circulating material you find here (and elsewhere in this site). Reprint permission is hereby granted in advance for noncommercial purposes.

Feel free to copy and post any original art on this site. (The ones with “prayerandpolitiks.org” at the bottom.) As well as other information you find helpful.

Your comments are always welcomed. If you have news, views, notes or quotes to add to the list above, please do. If you like what you read, pass this along to your friends. You can reach me directly at kensehested@prayerandpolitiks.org.

 

We Say No, Again

Baiting Iran toward a dangerous collision

 by Ken Sehested
15 January 2012

        On the first Sunday on Lent in 2007, when tensions between the US and Iran were escalating, Circle of Mercy Congregation unanimously adopted a statement (“We Say No: A Christian statement in opposition to war with Iran—see below”) opposing an attack on Iran. With the recent assassination of another Iranian scientist—the fourth to be targeted in the past two years—tensions between our two countries are again at a boiling point.

      This is an appropriate time, on this observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, to reaffirm our earlier convictions.

      Virtually no one in the US media, Congress or Administration is willing to speak of this assassination as an act of terrorism. One can imagine the outcry here if US scientists were being targeted, if Iran’s submarines were patrolling our coasts, if our nuclear program were the target of a cyber attack, if our energy exports and financial transactions were blockaded, or if Iranian political leaders were openly calling for “regime change” in the US.

      No one denies that our two nations have real and substantial policy disagreements. What seems increasingly clear, however, is that the US is baiting Iran toward a dangerous retaliatory response.

      The legacy which Dr. King’s bequeathed to us—highlighted by the new memorial in our nation’s capitol—is more than a fanciful pipe dream or fairytale. Revering the dreamer while reneging on the dream only hollows his memory. If Dr. King is to be more than a public souvenir, his commitment to nonviolent struggle—stemming from his vision of the Beloved Community—must become our commitment as well. Thus the following convictions need reaffirming.

# # #

We Say NO
A Christian statement in opposition to war with Iran
Circle of Mercy Congregation, Asheville, NC (USA)
Lent 2007

. . . they are a law unto themselves and promote their own honor.
Their own strength is their god.
Habakkuk 1:7b, 11c

        Despite assurances to the contrary from the U.S. Administration, we believe our nation’s leaders may be seriously calculating the benefits and risks of attacking Iran. Our reading of this moment in history, in light of our commitments as citizens and our convictions as followers of Jesus, impels us to oppose such a move.

        We fear that our political leadership—led by the Administration with the complicity of Congress—is pushing us to the brink of moral, financial, ecological and diplomatic bankruptcy.

        As with the ancient empire described in the Prophet Habakkuk’s oracle, our government is setting its “national interests” above international norms of justice, usurping all authority to itself. With an escalating military budget—already larger than those of all other nations combined—we seem to have established our own destructive threat as the source of national glory and honor.

Pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment.
Their eyes swell out with fatness, their hearts overflow with follies.
They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression.
They set their mouths against heaven, and their tongues range over the earth.
Psalm 73:6-9

        It is not our habit to engage in partisanship on any political party’s agenda. We believe in the separation of church and state. But not in the separation of values from public policy.

        In the Reformed legacy of the Christian community (toward which some in our congregation lean) there is a tradition of invoking a status confessionis, of declaring that some moments in history require the church to refuse neutrality and abandon silence. And in the Anabaptist tradition (toward which others of us lean), Jesus’ insistence on loving enemies precludes the willingness to kill them.

        Not only are these religious convictions suffering scandal; so, too, are the core values of this Republic’s founding. It was Thomas Jefferson, in 1807, who asserted, “The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.” Now, with the Administration’s 2002 “National Security Strategy” document, the U.S. claims (for the first time) justification for waging preemptive war. This policy undermines our democratic traditions, any and every theory of when war is “just,” and the very foundation of international law itself. The contradiction is staggering.

        Accordingly, should the U.S. preemptively attack Iran, we shall vigorously protest. For some of us, this commitment includes the willingness to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience.

        In the same way, we also pledge vigorous support for any leaders willing to consider Iran’s security concerns and national interests alongside those of the United States. Competition in belligerent behavior carries catastrophic risks. The only enduring security is mutual security.

        Another way is possible. Waging peace will require at least as much commitment—as much courage, pride, honor and ingenuity—as the pursuit of war.

        We say no to war against Iran. It is both a contradiction to the Way of the Cross and a defamation of national honor. We say yes to the strategies of multilateral diplomacy and other nonviolent initiatives. We invite other Christians, other people of faith, and other people of conscience to deliberate these convictions and consider similar commitments.

Postscript

You have sown much and harvested little; you eat, but you never have enough;
you drink, but you never have your fill; you put the wages you earn in a bag full of holes.
Haggai 1:6

        We make this statement in the midst of Lent, the Christian season leading up to Easter. The traditional emphases of Lent are prayer, fasting and almsgiving, all of which focus the mind and heart on the way gluttony corrupts our personal and common life. Appetites have a way of overwhelming wisdom. Righteousness is pursued by a commitment to clarifying disciplines: prayer, to calm the heart’s fretfulness; fasting, to purge the body’s toxic buildup; almsgiving, to recall God’s bias on behalf of those denied access to the earth’s bountiful table of provision.

        Sisters and brothers, especially in the household of faith: the Apostle Paul’s instruction—overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21b)—is both a spiritual truth and the foundation for politically realistic strategies to transform conflict. The Way of the Cross leads home.

#  #  #

This statement, drafted by Ken Sehested, was unanimously approved by the Circle of Mercy Congregation in a called business meeting on Sunday, 25 February 2007.

Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

The latest US-Iran dust-up

Reckless baiting . . . again

by Ken Sehested

“Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer . . . who says Cyrus [“the Great,” 6th century BCE ruler of Persia,
modern day Iran, who freed the Jews from Babylonian captivity] is my shepherd and he shall carry out
all my purpose” for he is my “anointed” [the same word later used for Jesus in the Newer Testament].
—Isaiah 44:28-45:1

It’s quite possible that the last two days’ headlining spat between the US and Iran may be Trump’s desire to distract public attention from his domestic challenges. It is not inconceivable that, as some are saying, he’s willing to go to war with Iran in order to get reelected.

Whatever the case may be, it’s important to pay attention to how the Administration and the press are reporting this latest dust-up.

Today’s article on the subject in USA Today (Kim Hjelmgaard and David Jackson) is a perfect example of how the US often portrays itself (ourselves) as victims, effectively disguising our role as provocateur.

On Sunday night Trump sent a Twitter shout, in all caps, demanding “NEVER EVER THREATEN THE US AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKE OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE” (which contains the implicit threat of a nuclear attack). Trump was responding to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani who, earlier on Sunday while speaking to an international group of foreign ministry officials, warned the US against a military attack on his country.

On Monday White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders put the blame on Iran, saying “If anybody’s inciting anything, look no further than to Iran.”

As if this history of belligerence began on Sunday. Not mentioned in news coverage are these facts:

1. In July 2017 John Bolton, currently Trump’s National Security Advisor, promised regime change “before 2019,” saying “I have said for over 10 years . . . that the declared policy of the United States of America should be the overthrow of the mullahs' regime in Tehran. The behavior and the objectives of the regime are not going to change, and therefore the only solution is to change the regime itself.”

2. Not mentioned is that in May, weeks after unilaterally pulling out of a multi-lateral agreement with Iran to halt its nuclear weapons production, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in his first speech as secretary of state, outlined a 12-point list of demands on Iranian leaders, which the Washington Post’s Jason Rezaian called “silly.” Then, after Rouhani’s speech surfaced, Pompeo issued a statement portraying Iranian leaders as “mafia” and urged Iranian citizens to rise up against its government (hinting at US support).

Keep in mind that Pompeo’s derision of Islam dates from his days as a congressman from Kansas: “The threat to America is from people who deeply believe that Islam is the way and the light and the only answer.” He is not only a fervent evangelical; his piety expands to a theocratic governing vision: “[T]o worship our Lord and celebrate our nation at the same place is not only our right, it is our duty,” describing politics as a “a never-ending struggle . . . until the rapture.” —Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, “,” Common Dreams

3. On Monday night, US General Wesley Clark, former NATO supreme commander (and one-time advocate of “internment camps” to house “disloyal” American citizens) commented that such tit-for-tat recriminations between the US and Iran “go all the way to the Iranian revolution of 1979.”

He failed to acknowledge the reason for that revolution and the dramatic hostage-taking of US Embassy personnel in Tehran: In 1953 the US Central Intelligence Agency (with British allies) sponsored the overthrow of the democratically-elected government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, putting in its place the dictatorial regime of the Iranian Shah (“emperor”), Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who provided bargain-basement access to the nation’s considerable energy resources by Western oil companies.

4. Few citizens recall that during the 1980s Iraq-Iran war the US removed Iraq from its “state sponsors of terrorism” list in order to supply crucial military intelligence to Iraq, as well as components of Iraq’s chemical weapons.

(General Clark has written cogently about the catastrophic effect a military strike on Iran. For more see his “Here’s the real cost of leaving the Iran deal,” CNBC.)

Or that the student hostage-takers at the US embassy in Tehran reconstructed and published 54 volumes of evidence, patched together from embassy files, revealing “CIA operatives . . . manipulating, threatening and bribing world leaders, rigging foreign elections, hijacking local political systems, shuffling foreign governments like decks of cards, sabotaging economic competitors, assassinating regional, national and tribal leaders at will, choreographing state-to-state diplomacy like cheap theater.” (Quote from Margot White’s Waking Up in Tehran first-hand reporting from that period, in David Swanson, “Waking Up in Tehran,” Global Research .)

Or the “Iran-Contra” affair in the mid-‘80s, when the Reagan Administration secretly sold military arms to Iran (in violation of an official arms embargo) to fund the US “contra war” in Nicaragua, opposing the Sandinista government, funding which Congress prohibited.

Or the 1988 incident when the US Navy shot down an Iranian passenger plane, flying in Iranian airspace, killing all 290 passengers, after which President Reagan expressed “regrets.”

Or that the US currently has two dozen (that we know of) military bases in 10 countries surrounding Iran, in addition to at least one Naval carrier group in the Persian Gulf region.

As Jeff Faux has written (“Why Are We in the Middle East?”), “The [US] rationale is embarrassingly circular—we must remain in the Middle East to protect against terrorists who hate America because we are in the Middle East.”

You don’t have to believe that Iran’s current leaders are innocent of the charges brought against them to acknowledge that the US has sought to work its will on the Iranian people for a long time and is currently pursuing a reckless game of brinkmanship with potentially catastrophic consequences.

#  #  #

•For more on this dangerous threat, see “Worried about increasing US-Iran tensions? You should be.”

•For a local congregation’s confessional statement opposing such a war (approved in 2007, reissued in 2012), see “We Say No, Again: Baiting Iran toward a dangerous collision.”

©ken sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

Memorial Day: A historical summary

Why being for peace is not enough

by Ken Sehested

        As a child I wasn’t aware that Memorial Day observances were intended for those felled on the battlefield. I though of it as a day of familial remembrance, honoring relatives gone before us—veterans and non-veterans alike—something akin to a low-church All Saints Day, but with flowers. Lots of flowers.

        For decades, to this day, one of my uncles in southern Oklahoma assumes the duty of trimming grass, pulling weeds and placing wreaths on the Rowell, Sehested and Young burial plots in the small town of Marlow, where I was born and where my own name is carved—with only a birth day for now—in a granite slab that stretches across my immediate family’s plot, where both my father’s body and my sister’s ashes are buried.

        Decorating the graves of fallen soldiers goes back at least to the fifth century BCE, when the Athenian leader Pericles offered tribute over the graves of Pelopponnesian War casualties. (Among the most tragic and enduring statements of political reality—“The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must”—comes from the Greek historian Thuycydides’ The History of the Pelopponnesian War.)

 

U.S. Civil War origins of the holiday

        In the U.S., however, the tradition originally referred to as “Decoration Day” sprang up in response to the Civil War.

        Where the first such commemoration was held is murky. Boalsburg, Penn., Vicksburg, Miss., Waterloo, N.Y., and Carbondale, Ill., make the claim (along with some 20 other cities). It wasn’t until 1966 that a Congressional resolution formally recognized the village of Waterloo as “the first observance of Memorial Day [on 5 May 1866] as a national holiday.”

        Most such observances were in April or May, when plenty of flowers were available. Not surprisingly, women primarily were the ones who took the initiative. Even the first national leader to issue a proclamation marking the day—for 30 May 1868—General John A. Logan, Commander in Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, was said to have been inspired by his wife’s account of viewing women in Petersburg, Va., decorating the graves of Confederate soldiers. Two years earlier the New York Tribune printed a story of Columbus, Miss., women laying flowers on the graves of both Confederate and Union soldiers.

        Decoration Day ceremonies were often occasions for a renewal of bitter regional rivalries. In Arlington Cemetery, Confederate and Union gravesites were segregated from each other, and in some years soldiers prevented people from decorating the graves of Confederates. In New York, the first state to declare 30 May a holiday, Confederate veterans were not allowed to parade with their flag or uniforms. In the South during Reconstruction, Decoration Day provided a rallying point for continued resistance to the Civil War’s conclusion and the occupying Union troops. In other Northern cities the occasion featured diatribes against freed slaves and abolitionists. Rarely if ever was the day devoted to celebrating the emancipation of slaves.

        (Contrary to popular opinion, most Unionists were not abolitionists. In fact, the most deadly race riot in U.S. history was in July 1863 in New York City, after President Lincoln signed legislation ordering a military draft. For five days poorer white residents —mostly Irish, then New England’s “white trash”—looted and burned, targeting mostly African Americans, including an orphanage. In the end there were at least 120 fatalities and over 2,000 wounded. “Freeing the slaves” was not a widespread motive for the war. President Abraham Lincoln himself wrote: "I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races.” In the lines of a popular rhyme in Northern cities when the war broke out, “To the flag we are pledged, all its foes we abhor. And we ain’t for the ni**er, but we are for the war.” For background, see R. Blakeslee Gilpin, “A War Not for Abolition, New York Times.)

Other interesting facts about the holiday

        •Shortly after the war’s end, some 10,000 freed slaves in Charleston, S.C., dedicated a cemetery holding the remains of Union prisoners of war.

        •Nine former Confederate states still have an official “Confederate Memorial Day.”

        •A 1905 story in The New York Times reported that a two-year-old mystery had finally been resolved, involving the repeated decoration of a tall granite shaft in a Westchester, N.Y., cemetery commemorating the deaths of Confederate soldiers. The Daughters of the Confederacy claimed the wreaths had not been their doing. As it turns out, two Unionist women’s organization had been secretly placing the memorial flowers.

        “Although the services yesterday were nominally intended to honor the Confederate dead,” wrote the Times journalist, “the graves of Union soldiers had the highest heap of flowers on them, and they were put there by the Southern women.”

        •The current Memorial Day holiday observance, placing the date on the last Monday of May, was not established by Congress until January 1971.

        It’s hard to comprehend the devastation of the U.S. Civil War. The official death toll of 620,000 soldiers (civilian casualties were not tallied)—almost equal the death toll of all subsequent U.S. wars—represented two percent of the population. Two percent of our nation’s current population comes to more than 6,000,000.

Being for peace is not enough

        A reported conversation following World War I between Woodrow Wilson of the United States, David Lloyd-George of Great Britain and Georges Clemenceau of France speak well to the situation under consideration.

     Among them it was asked, "Do we want peace?"  Their agreed answer was, "Yes." Then it was asked, more probingly, "Are we willing to abandon colonialism?"  And the British answered, "No, of course not."  It was further asked, "Are we willing to forego any claims for reparation against the Germans?"  This time it was the French and the Americans who said, "No."

     Then, within that influential threesome, the perceptive insight was voiced, "What we really want is not peace, but only quiet while we enjoy the spoils of our victory in war."

     To say it more concisely: We all want peace. But we also want what we cannot get without war. Which is why it’s not enough to be for peace.

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©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

This article slightly expands the original which was first printed in the 26 May 2008 edition of “EthicsDaily.com,” electronic publication of the Baptist Center for Ethics.