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How do you deal with anger?

Pastoral commentary

by Ken Sehested

Introduction

Many years ago a friend wrote to ask about how to handle anger, naming a specific incident regarding
her congregation’s skewed budget habits. Of course, the incident is not unique, and the question
of what to do with anger stretches across a wide range of personal and public contexts.
Below is her question and commentary, then my response.

Dear Ken,

I have a question on which I would really appreciate your thoughts: what is the role of human anger in God's work?

At the moment I am working through some issues surrounding anger. On one hand I often see it as part of the passion to do God's work—as a response to injustices, thus a force that gets one to work for change. However, I am also aware that people get burned in the process of (my) anger—hmm, not likely a God objective.

Our congregation’s annual meeting is on Sunday. This is the time where money decisions get made. I am angry that our congregation has, and likely will continue, to focus on maintaining our building and not take on work outside the walls of the church. There are many issues here: the congregation's lack of vision of substantial work other than bricks and mortar, the failure of the spiritual leaders of the congregation (clergy and lay) to name this and act upon it, a lack of development and feeding of spiritual issues with the congregation.

The list goes on. I will speak on Sunday to the budget and name the shortfalls I see in it, but this is something I am really angry about. I think this is a ball of tangled thread I need to unwind. I think in the process I will separate the multiple issues of anger, including the force of God's presence, acting on the side of the oppressed, and being a catalyst for change.

How have you dealt with the anger, which I assume you feel and have felt over situations of injustice and willing blindness?

Chris

§  §  §

Dear Chris,

You ask a great question, about anger. From what you've described, I'd say your instincts about the appropriateness of anger are much the same as mine. I’m not sure I have anything to say which you don’t already know; but we all need reminding of what we know, so let me make a few comments.

As you note yourself, anger is always the appropriate response to injustice. I would go so far as to say that in such circumstances, it is evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit. (You've probably heard this quote from St. Augustine: "Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage: anger at the way things are and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.")

Unfortunately, I suspect that you and I were both reared in a religious culture that strongly discouraged the expression of anger. (Typically, females have been more repressed than males, for reasons of gender.) And we don't have many good models on appropriate expression of anger.

On the face of it, Scripture seems contradictory at this point. Jesus warned that "every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment" (Matthew 5:22). Yet Jesus himself is pictured as expressing anger, particularly when he overthrew the tables in the temple. On the other hand, Paul wrote what I think is the pivotal text: "Be angry, but sin not" (Ephesians 4:26).

How do we do that? How do we avoid sin in the midst of anger?

Like you, I have had numerous experiences where I was very clear of the truth of my convictions, in the course of discussion or debate (in church contexts, in particular). What I have to constantly do is make a crucial distinction between the power of the Truth and the power of my argument.

I am well aware, in times past, when I was advocating for a particular position (not unlike the one you describe, re: the church's self-absorption with its own building), that part of the agitation I felt stemmed from fear—fear that I wasn't going to win the argument. When that happens, the fear in me gets expressed as aggression and enmity toward those with whom I'm debating; and it often provokes a response in kind: they become defensive and respond with hostility (often masked with piety, of course—which is the worst kind of hostility).

It's this latter kind of "anger" which, I believe, is sin. It's rooted in our own insecurities—ultimately, in our own shaky confidence in the power of the Gospel itself. (i.e., If we don't win the argument, evil will prevail—the attitude from which, in the extreme, wars develop.)

This is why the notion of nonviolence is so central to my theology and is slowly but surely impacting my actual behavior! Our tendencies to violence, like ground-in dirt, often takes a lot of “soaking” to loosen their grip on the fabric of our lives.

For each of us, I think, the true power of the Gospel gets expressed in the refusal to coerce, to insist that my conviction be upheld over alternative convictions. In other words, in the ability to "lose" without "losing it" (i.e., without getting angry in a sinful way). This confidence, ultimately, rests in our confidence in the Resurrection: that not even death, finally, can take away anything of essential value; for God is at the Center; that "while the moral arm of the universe is long, it bends toward justice" (one of M.L. King's favorite sayings, quoting Carlisle).

But be very clear at this point: This confidence is no justification for passivity or withdrawal. We will do our very best to speak the truth, as compassionately, as powerfully, as strategically, and as intelligently as possible.

In the end, though, even with this commitment to nonviolence, you can't help but make some people mad. Trying to always be "nice" (i.e., behaving so that no one is unhappy with you) is itself a form of self-absorption and self-preoccupation. It didn't happen for the prophets, for Jesus, for the disciples—why should you think you could do it if they failed?!

We do everything possible not to make people mad, of course—including taking on unmerited suffering without retaliation. But even at this point (as my wife is fond of saying), there's a difference between taking up the towel and basin of water (to wash feet) and being a doormat for people to wipe their feet on. The latter is never, ever a form of righteousness.

Of course, even when we already know these things (as I know you do), learning about how to "be angry, but sin not" comes from practice. Unfortunately, experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.

So, be angry, dear sister . . . but sin not.

Ken

©ken sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

Being Good and Doing Good

Martin Marty, Fortress, 1984

reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

This is an old treatment of ethics by a veteran theologian and historian, and it’s significant that its relevance remains constant still.  An interesting perspective is Marty’s identification of a literary basis for being ethical.  ‘Let a text speak to us and present a horizon through imagination and emotional acts’ (p 57); this is an alternative to the rational arguments for ethical discourse and action.  The final two chapters deal with how we live:  the public sphere where the individual is linked with fellow believers as well as non-believers in the whole world of human beings, and the personal sphere, various areas of private life that also have public effects (p 91).

Marty’s methodology does not go into details about what to do in certain issues (eg abortion, pacifism) but to see the relatedness of all life in what he calls ‘zones’.  The zone of the body (the self), those where we are intimately related to family, friends, the neighbourhood, institutions (schools, local church), place of employment.  The impetus to responsible living comes from our baptism, living the forgiven life.  He closes his book with an appeal to Christians to contribute to the common good, to find themselves at the foot of the cross in sight of an open tomb.  ‘That is the space where Jesus meets humans’ (p 128).

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Toward a True Kinship of Faiths

The Dalai Lama, Three Rivers Press, 2010

reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

This is a moving examination of inter-faith sharing, with the Dalai Lama reflecting on the implications of our world’s spiritual dimensions.  His paradigm for spiritual sharing is not the identification of religious elements that are the lowest common denominators.  ‘The move to the pluralist position of interchange with other religions by no means involve abandoning one’s central commitment to one’s own faith; it hugely enriches the understanding and practice of one’s own religion.  It allows one to see convergences with other religions; it broadens one’s respect for the extraordinary range and diversity of spiritual approaches developed entirely outside one’s faith tradition’ (pp 17,18).  He draws a distinction between what can be seen as three key aspects of a religion:  ethical teachings, doctrines (metaphysics), cultural specifics (p 150).  He points out that there is a ‘great convergence of the world’s religions:  the central message of all these religions is love and compassion; the purpose of all religions remains the same:  to contribute to the betterment of humanity.  There are fundamental doctrinal differences among the religions.  The challenge is to find a way in which the followers of these traditions can remain true to their doctrinal standpoints and see them as representing legitimate paths to G-d.

For me as a Christian, the question is not what I believe as I meet others, but how Jesus would interact.  A powerful book that struggles with the possibilities of religious pluralism from the perspective of Jesus.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Wresting With G-d

Roland Rolheiser, Penguin, 2018

reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

The last few decades have brought about major changes in our lives. Globalization has reshaped virtually all of our communities in terms of ethnicity, culture and religion.  The sexual revolution has radically altered how our world sees love; political and religious extremism polarize our communities. This sets before us a whole range of new challenges in terms of how we understand life, love, sexuality, family, country, religion, faith and G-d.  Rolheiser’s book helps in a search for not only meaning and faith but a greater steadiness in life.  ‘Steadiness is the key word.  Real faith is not a set of answers; rather, it leaves us in mystery, in longing, in desire, but open to something bigger…. Our deepest desire is a gnawing disquiet inside us, a longing for Someone big enough to embrace our questions and hold our doubts’ (p 16).

Embracing our questions, struggling with our own complexity, is a continuation of the Socratic claim that ‘the unanswered life is not worth living’, and so Rolheiser outlines our wrestling with seven areas of life (eg our nature, our eroticism, our fear, our mandate to reach out to the poor, G-d, Faith and culture.  The final chapter suggests guidelines ‘for the long haul’.  Trim our spiritual vocabularies to three words:  forgiveness, forgiveness, forgiveness!  Religious and moral fidelity, when not rooted in gratitude and forgiveness, are not enough.  Metanoia is the large-hearted reminder to never close the doors to others.  Taking away the sins of our community, by transforming tension. Praying—being aware of the Spirit praying in us and for us.  Remember that we are safe through G-d, even in death. Choose the regrets we can live with best.

A powerful book of analysis and of life.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

The Beginnings of Politics

Moshe Halbertal & Stephen Hollmans, Princeton University Press, 2017

reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

The biblical book of Samuel is a book of political thought; it does not paint a flattering portrait of any of the work’s principle characters (eg Samuel, Saul, David, Absalom and a handful of others); no one party or individual is endorsed.  In the pre-Samuel period no standing army was established and no unity of purpose or centralization of political-military power was achieved. No standing army was established and no enduring unity of purpose or centralization of political-military power was achieved.

No single stable ruler capable of asserting his supreme authority over tribes and clans often embroiled in blood feuds could emerge.  But a supreme authority is the underpinnings of any human political order.  This is why all political entities aim to organize a smooth transfer of power one leader to the next.  Dynastic-monarchy offers one possible solution to the problem of regional continuity; the bloodlines of the king’s family provide a possible nonviolent transfer of power.  Dynastic succession is the experience of the Samuel-era Israeli state as dynastic succession seeks to provide unity and continuity. The price paid by the people for this is the imposition of taxes and military drafts.

In detailing the rise and rule of two very different kings, the writer(s) of Samuel focus on the concept of power that refuses to acknowledge moral restrictions for living among their supporters.  They end up using the power they have been granted for the welfare of the community by clinging to political power for its own sake (eg Saul’s plot to have David killed, 1 Samuel 18); the writer(s) of Samuel point out the need for community of sovereignty.  The author of Samuel does not argue against the dynastic solution to the continuity problem, but points out what centralized power inflicts on the ruler and on his children, mingling family love and political ambition.

The Beginnings of Politics is a powerful treatment of political implications of power in politics, whether in David’s time or in ours.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

The Sin of Uncertainty

Peter Enns, Harper, 2016

reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

Our beliefs provide a familiar structure to our life; they give answers to our big questions:  does G-d exist?  Is there a right religion?  Why are we here?  Church is too often the most risky place to be spiritually honest.  For Enns, true faith and correct thinking were two sides of the same cover, and his religious structure no longer constituted an unshakeable persuasion.  He came to see that ‘knowing’ as his church held, has its place but not at the centre of faith, and he realized that he could choose to trust G-d regardless of how certain he felt (p 15), when we too often confuse G-d   with our thoughts about G-d (p 19). This results in the problem of trusting our beliefs rather than trusting G-d (p 21). The problem is that knowledge based faith is a largely unquestioned part of our western culture.

Faith in the biblical sense is rooted deeply in trust in G-d.  A life of faith that accepts this biblical challenge is much more demanding than being preoccupied with correct thinking.  ‘Trust is not marked by unflappable dogmatic certainty but by embracing as a normal part of faith the steady line of mysteries and uncertainties, seeing them as opportunities to trust more deeply’ (p 205)  ‘Trust in G-d, not in correct thinking about G-d, is the beginning and end of faith’ (p 211), a faith rooted in trust, not in certainty.  ‘The life of Christian faith is more than agreeing with a set of beliefs about Christ, morality or how to read the bible.  It means being so intimately connected to Christ that his crucifixion is ours’ (p 162).

Enns focuses on the essence of Christian faith, on trust ,not on formulae.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Beyond Occupation: American Jewish, Christian and Palestinian Voices for Peace

Rosemary Reuther and Marc Ellis, Beacon Press, 1990

reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

The Israeli occupation of the territories won in the Six day War of 1967 entered a new phase in 1987 with the beginnings of the Palestinian uprising (intifada).  Beyond Occupation explores frameworks for peace in the Middle East in this development.  The American Jewish contributors look at the meanings that the intifada holds for the theology of Judaism; Christian contributors articulate an ethical framework for a peace settlement, seeking to distinguish between anti-semitism and a critique of Jewish policies; Palestinian contributors offer a perspective on the long history of events leading up to the intifada, arguing for an awareness of the Palestinian experience as the necessary basis for reconciliation in the Middle East.

Beyond Occupation is arranged in four sections.  The first contains Jewish responses to the uprising, showing the diversity of opinions and perspectives within that community; common themes by the six essayists are the role of ethics and the shocking policy of lethal force ad bone breaking beatings.  The second section has four Christian contributors seeking a just balance between concern for national security and for Israeli and Palestinian rights, seeking to distinguish between anti-Semitism and a critique of Israeli policies.  The third section consists of five essays dealing with the Palestinian story from the perspective of the British mandate and the Balfour Declaration.  The final three essays attempt to identify common ground for discussion among the three groups.

A helpful book for understanding the nature of the Middle East situation.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

The Ministry of Listening

Donald Peel, Anglican Book Centre, 1980

reviewed by Vern Ratzlaff

It is an old book, but still relevant in the attempt to equip lay people minister to others.  Peel not only helps lay people to minister to others, but stimulates us to identify the areas where the congregation can be strengthened and helped.

While hospital visitation is probably the readers’ first identification of an area of visitation, Peel identifies a basic technique of creative listening to help the congregation strengthen its membership: Hospital visitation, visiting the elderly, housebound young mothers, stressed workplace individuals, neighbours across the back fence, parents of Sunday School students, newcomers to the congregation.  Peel sketches the shape of creative listening to include not only hospital patients but also their relatives and friends.  And the hospital staff!  What he attempts is to see the shape of caring from a pastoral orientation that sees the need for better training of congregational membership to the sustained exercise of pastoral care by an articulate membership.

Peel calls for the development at the congregational level of training and identification of frequently encountered needs.  Active listening is the use of feeling, helping the participant to articulate for herself/himself authentic responses to G-d’s healing grace.  Peel sketches the use of prayer and scripture, and visiting the dying, those who mourn, the elderly, and pastoral care on the psychiatric ward.

A useful small book to strengthen pastoral care at the congregational level.

Vern Ratzlaff is a pastor and professor of historical theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

News, views, notes, and quotes

Signs of the Times  •  3 July 2018 •  No. 166

Processional. “There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me. / The sign was painted, said ‘Private Property.’ / But on the backside, it didn’t say nothing.  / This land was made for you and me.” —Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, “This Land is Your Land”

“Purple Mountains Majesty” photo by Russ Bishop

Special edition
PATRIOTISM

Invocation. “In seasons of dark desire eyes strain for Eden’s refrain and flickered light ’mid the fright of earth’s travail. Oh, Beloved, unleash your Voice of Pardon from wrath’s consuming reign. Speak peace to the hungered of heart.” —continue reading “Speak peace to the hungered of heart,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 85

Call to worship. “This Land Is Your Land,” Woody Guthrie.

Good news. Amazing story of 10-year-old Sarah Haycox recovered a forgotten story in her town’s history and successfully lobbied to give it prominence. —CBS Sunday Morning (2:52 video. Thanks Abigail.)

Hymn of praise. “This is my song, O God of all Nations / A song of peace for lands afar and mine / This is my home, the country where my heart is / Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine / But other hearts in other lands are beating / With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.” —Indigo Girls, with Michelle Malone, “Song of Peace (Finlandia)”

¶ “Over the past 15 years the aphorism ‘freedom is not free’ has become a popular patriotic refrain. But we forget that, in 1953, Army Chief of Staff General Matthew Ridgeway used the phrase to identify the difference between those who torture their captives and those who, like us, believe the disavowal of torture is among the “self-evident truths” dating from our Republic’s founding. The ‘cost’ of freedom entails moral accountability.” —continue reading, “The cost of freedom entails moral accountability: The need for truthtelling about the CIA’s torturing practices”

One hundredth birthday of “God Bless America.” We forget that this popular tune was penned by a refugee—Irving Beilin, who changed his name to Berlin. “The first reference to the song in The New York Times describes a performance at a dinner sponsored by the National Conference of Christians and Jews, where religious leaders repudiated the “doctrine of race and hate” in totalitarian Europe and urged Americans not to let it happen within their own communities. In a 1940 leaders of a joint Ku Klux Klan and the pro-Nazi German American Bund rally called for a boycott of the song.

        Listen to the radio star Kate Smith’s first performance of the song.

        Woody Guthrie’s song, “This Land Is Your Land,” was originally written as a sarcastic comment on the Berlin song and was titled “God Blessed America for Me.” First recorded in 1944 by Moses Asch, this controversial verse was not included and, in fact, forgotten until 1997 when Smithsonian archivist Jeff Place heard it while digitizing the acetate master: “There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me. / The sign was painted, said 'Private Property.' / But on the backside, it didn't say nothing. / This land was made for you and me.”

        The song wasn’t released until 1951, when McCarthyism was on the rise and Cold War politics became dominant.

        Guthrie never recorded another controversial verse, one that expressly calls out the church: “One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple, / by the relief office I saw my people.  / As they stood hungry,  / I stood there wondering if God blessed America for me.” —For more see Sheryl Kaskowitz, “’God Bless America’: 100 Years of an Immigrant’s Anthem,” New York Times; and Nick Spitzer, “The Story of Woody Guthrie’s ‘This Land Is Your Land,’” NPR (audio version 13;00)

Confession. “This nation is founded on blood like a city on swamps / yet its dream has been beautiful and sometimes just / that now grows brutal and heavy as a burned-out star. —Marge Piercy, in “Circles on the Water”

¶ “I would suggest that such practices as the designation of 'In God We Trust' as our national motto, or the references to God contained in the Pledge of Allegiance can best be understood as a form of 'ceremonial deism,' protected from Establishment Clause scrutiny because they have lost through rote repetition any significant religious content. . . ." —US Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Lynch v. Donnelly (1984)

Hymn of supplication. “I was walking with my brother / and he wondered what's on my mind / I said, What I believe in my soul / ain't what I see with my eyes / And we can't turn our backs this time /  And the river opens for the righteous.” —Jackson Browne, “I Am a Patriot” (Thanks Thom.)

Words of assurance. “I raised my head and set myself / In the eye of the storm, in the belly of a whale / My spirit stood on solid ground / I'll be at peace when they lay me down.” —Loretta Lynn & Willie Nelson, “Lay Me Down” (Thanks Marsha.)

¶ “This year, five state legislatures passed laws mandating that every public school prominently display the U.S. motto, ‘In God We Trust.’ The addition of Arkansas, which passed such a law in 2017, brings to six the number of states with public school mandates, including Alabama, Florida, Arizona, Louisiana and Tennessee. Those laws, mostly sponsored by legislative prayer caucuses in about 30 states, were inspired by the foundation’s 2017 manual known as Project Blitz [a project of the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation], a 116-page guide for state legislators listing 20 model bills of which ‘In God We Trust’ is the first.” —Yonat Shimron, Religion News Service

Professing our faith. “Because our virtues as a nation are considerable, we tend to think our vices unremarkable. Such is not the case. At the same time, this is the case: If you do not love your land you cannot participate in its healing.

       “If we are to rightly interpret our condition, listening for the Word that is needed, we simply must take seriously the whole story—its glory and its shame.” —continue reading “Of Thee I Sing: An Independence Day meditation”

Hymn of resolution. “I’d hammer out a danger, I’d hammer out a warning, I’d hammer out a love between my brothers and my sisters, all over this land.” —Peter, Paul & Mary, “If I Had a Hammer”

Quotes on patriotism.

        • “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” —Samuel Johnson

        • “A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.” —Edward Abbey

        • “Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.” —Charles De Gaulle

        • “The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?” —Pablo Casals

        • “Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country.” —Bertrand Russell

        • “Born in iniquity and conceived in sin, the spirit of nationalism has never ceased to bend human institutions to the service of dissension and distress.” —Thorstein Veblen

        • “American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.” —James Baldwin

        • “When a nation is filled with strife, then do patriots flourish.” —Lao Tzu

        • “Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.” —Oscar Wilde

Hymn of intercession. “What makes a gringo your smart aleck lingo / When he stole this land from the Indian way back when / Don't he remember the big money lender / That put him a lincoln parked where his pinto had been / The almighty peso that gives him the say so / To dry up the river whenever there's crops to bring in / Such a good neighbor to take all his labor / Chase him back over the border till he's needed again.” —Merle Haggard, “The Immigrant”

¶ “Every year the major networks compete on this evening for viewers tuned in for the liturgical assurance of patriotic songs, “bombs bursting in air,” celebrity cameos, and the inevitable heroizing of troops. The latter urge is understandable, given the agonizing affect of hundreds of veteran suicides every month." —continue reading “This Land Is Your Land: Independence Day in light of Woody Guthrie’s enduring question about to whom the land belongs”

¶ “The devil lies to the kings and gets them blind drunk on his wine of Patriotism and they fill their subjects with the same stuff and tell them that their fatherland is in danger and they must fight to protest it. That is a lie of the Devil.

        “The highest type of patriotism is to refuse to fight with carnal weapons and stand by Him who taught us to love our enemies and put up the sword.

        “O Reader, don't let the devil fool you on this false notion of patriotism. . . . Will we, followers of the Prince of Peace, dedicate our bodies to the god of war to murder or butcher our fellow man? God forbid!” —W.S. Craig, writing in the “Repairer” publication, April 1918, rooted in the Free Methodist tradition

Offertory. “Unforgettable,” Bill Waltrous (RIP – 1938-2018).

Preach it. “When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendor of the past; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion—its message becomes meaningless.” —Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

Can’t makes this sh*t up. “. . . we have the right and obligation to protect what others have fought and died for.” —letter to the editor, Asheville Citizen-Times, of a motorcyclist rejecting calls for stricter enforcement of vehicular noise regulations

Call to the table. “Lovers of the world unite / Bound to Creator’s vision, bright / That even these, our darkest nights / Become the light, become the light." —Alana Levondoski, “Hope Beyond All Hope”

The state of our disunion, from the world of gazillionaire athletes. Superstar basketball player LeBron James left a $35.6 million contract offer from Cleveland on the table; and then, a few days later, signed a new one with the Los Angeles Lakers for $38.5 million per year. Let’s do the math.
        The National Basketball Association regular season schedule is 82 games per year. So, LeBron’s salary comes to a wee bit over $1,878,000.00 per game (a bit less per game if they reach the playoffs).

Best one-liner. “Nobel Prize now a near-certainty for Trump after he does the impossible: Unites Canada.” —Paul Duncan (Thanks Linda—and a belated happy Canada Day to friends north of the 49th.)

For the beauty of the earth. Time-lapse video (1:15) of cactus blooms unfolding. (Thanks Lori.)

Altar call. “I want our nation to listen to a poet who dares to unchoke love from bellowing patriotism. One who will resuscitate the word with the sharp rib-cracking pressure of truth, so that the gasp of the future may rush into our lungs, that we might breathe together and survive our broken hearts.” —Rivera Sun, “Sing the Body Politic, Electric,” CommonDreams

Benediction. “Tend your sick ones, O God. Rest your weary ones. Bless your dying ones. Soothe your suffering ones. Embrace your afflicted ones. Shield your joyous ones. Grace your shamed ones. May the love that abides and never dies stay secure in us, around us, and beyond us, forever and ever. Amen.” —continue reading “Call to prayer and pastoral prayer,” Nancy Hastings Sehested (adapting a prayer from St. Augustine)

Recessional. “From the north to the south / from the west to the east / hear the prayer of the mothers / bring them peace / bring them peace.” —Yael Deckelbaum & Prayer of the Mothers, “This Land” (English translation of Hebrew and Egyptian Arabic lyrics), a 14-member ensemble of Jewish, Arab and Christian women

Lectionary for this Sunday. “Good pleasure,” a litany for worship inspired by Ephesians 1:3-14

Lectionary for Sunday next. “Strangers we were,” a litany for worship inspired by Ephesians 2:11-22

Just for fun. The Sunday when Bart Simpson switched the hymn. (1:23 video. Thanks Sally.)

#  #  #

Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “Of Thee I Sing: An Independence Day meditation”

• “Good pleasure,” a litany for worship inspired by Ephesians 1:3-14

• “Strangers we were,” a litany for worship inspired by Ephesians 2:11-22

• “Call to prayer and pastoral prayer,” Nancy Hastings Sehested

 
Other features

• “The cost of freedom entails moral accountability: The need for truthtelling about the CIA’s torturing practices”

• “Speak peace to the hungered of heart,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 85

• “Colin Kaepernick, national anthems, and flag-flown piety: Commentary on what is and is not sacred”

• “This Land Is Your Land: Independence Day in light of Woody Guthrie’s enduring question about to whom the land belongs”

©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 “prayer&politiks.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.

 

News, views, notes, and quotes

Signs of the Times  •  3 November 2016  •  No. 95

Processional. Someday there will be a peace dance as vigorous, as compelling, and as ecstatic as this: Comanche war dance (1:00 video).

Above: Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Introduction

        By now, DAPL (Dakota Access Pipeline) has become a familiar acronym to many in the US. The confrontation near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, where the Cannonball River joins the Missouri River, is cleft by a thin barricade.

        On one side is law enforcement: Morton County sheriffs, augmented with state police, National Guard troops, sheriffs from other states and oil company private security personnel, all heavily armed and supported by surveillance airplanes and helicopters, armored vehicles, even “sound cannons” (“Long Range Acoustical Devices” emitting ear-splitting noise).

Right: An 86-year old Sioux elder arriving at the Sacred Stone Camp near Cannonball, North Dakota. (Photo: Birk Albert/Facebook)

        On the other, unarmed members of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation (who name themselves “Water Protectors”) and their supporters, which now number in the thousands. —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Confrontation on the Cannon Ball: The Dakota Access Pipeline”

Invocation. “Now I Walk in Beauty,” adapted from a Navajo prayer, performed by Libana.

¶ “When the white man came we had the land and they had the Bibles; now they have the land and we have the Bibles." —Chief Dan George

¶ “Standing Rock,” Trevor Hall. This music video + text (4:13) effectively summarizes the situation at the Standing Rock Sioux peoples resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline.

¶ More than 900 law enforcement officials from 17 counties, 12 cities, North Dakota National Guard, and six other states are currently using public funds to protect Energy Transfer Partner’s private project, known as DAPL.” —C.S. Hagen, “Standing Rock Chief Condemns Crackdown,” and Dan Zukowski, “Governor Uses Emergency Order to Bring Out-of-State Police to Dakota Access Pipeline Protest,” EcoWatch 

The legal protocol used by the North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple to justify bringing law enforcement personnel from outside the county to Standing Rock is a little-known provision called the Emergency Management Assistance Compact which is intended for state agencies to share resources during natural disasters. In this case, protecting a private business is considered a natural disaster. —Steve Horn, “The Natural Disaster Assistance Law Is Why Other States Are Policing Dakota Access Pipeline Protests,” Huffington Post

Energy Transfer Partners, which is building the $3.8 billion pipeline, said Tuesday that the protesters were trespassing and that “lawless behavior will not be tolerated”—oblivious to the fact that the Fort Laramie Treaty gave exclusive ownership rights to the Lakota Sioux. (More on that below.)

Call to worship. “Worthy, worthy the One who conceived the earth and gave birth to bears and basil and beatitudes alike. We extol you, Heaven’s Delight and Earth’s Repose! Oh, children of Christ’s embrace, even when trembling abounds, say aloud: God is worth the trouble!” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Heaven’s delight and earth’s repose,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 145

"To understand the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, you need to understand tribal sovereignty: Policy has to be paired with indigenous people’s experiences." —Victoria M. Massie, Vox

Hymn of praise. Hopi spirit chant.

Commerce trumps all. “We just want to maintain safety as we go through this and that means everyone involved. . . . We don’t want anybody hurt or run over down there. We just want to make sure commerce can continue as it should.” —Morton County (North Dakota) Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier, quoted in Lee Strubinger, South Dakota Public Radio

¶ “Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.” —Cree proverb

Confession. “We have seen that the white man does not take his religion any more seriously than his laws, that he keeps both of them just behind him, like Helpers, to use when they might do him good. … These are not our ways. We kept the laws we made and lived by our religion. We have never understood the white man, who fools no one but himself.” —Chief Plenty-Coups, Crow nation

For the Lakota, the Dakota Access Pipeline is associated with the “black snake” (see right) of an ancient Lakota prophecy that predicted one day a black snake would crawl out of the ground, bringing great destruction to the People of the Plains.

Hymn of lamentation. “Sitting Bull Memorial Song,” Lakota Thunder.

¶ “The reservation, of course, is where the Native Americans were told to live when the vast lands they ranged were taken by others. The Great Sioux Reservation, formed in the eighteen-sixties, shrunk again and again. In the nineteen-fifties and early sixties, the Army Corps of Engineers—the same Army Corps now approving the pipeline—built five large dams along the Missouri, forcing Indian villages to relocate. More than two hundred thousand acres disappeared beneath the water. —Bill McKibben, “A Pipeline Fight and America’s Dark Past,” The New Yorker

Words of assurance. “Spirit Healing Song – Lakota.”

¶ “Since 2010, over 3,300 incidents of crude oil and liquefied natural gas leaks or ruptures have occurred on U.S. pipelines. These incidents have killed 80 people, injured 389 more, and cost $2.8 billion in damages. They also released toxic, polluting chemicals in local soil, waterways, and air.” —Amanda Starbuck, Center for Effective Government (Thanks Brent.)

¶ “A North Dakota oil well owned by Oasis Petroleum Inc. blew out over the weekend [15-16 October 2016] and has yet to be capped, leaking more than 67,000 gallons of crude so far and endangering a tributary of the Missouri River, state officials said.” —Ernest Scheyder, Reuters

Left: One of three camp sites of the Standing Rock Sioux “Water Protectors” and their allies opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline. RNS photo by Emily McFarlan Miller.

¶ “Sunoco Logistics, the future operator of the [Dakota Access Pipeline] delayed this month after Native American protests in North Dakota, spills crude more often than any of its competitors with more than 200 leaks since 2010, according to a Reuters analysis of government data.” —Liz Hampton, Reuters

¶ “How to Contact the 17 Banks Funding the Dakota Access Pipeline. Here are CEO names, emails, and phone numbers—because banks have choices when it comes to what projects they give loans to.” —Emily Fuller, YES! magazine

Hymn of intercession. “Lakota National Anthem,” Porcupine Singers of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

In 1987, the United States Senate acknowledged that the Great Law of Peace of the Iroquois Nations served as a model for the Constitution of the United States. —U.S. S. Con. Res. 76, 2 Dec. 1987

Illustrated map of Native American Nations, with animated progress of lands taken from pre-European times to the present.

¶ “Some day the earth will weep, she will beg for her life, she will cry with tears of blood. You will make a choice, if you will help her or let her die, and when she dies, you will die.” —John Hollow Horn, Oglala Lakota

The “Black Hills Gold Rush” of the 1870s, illegally opening Lakota Sioux land to miners and settlers, is what led to US General George Armstrong Custer’s defeat in the Battle of the Little Bighorn of 1876. The 1828 "Dahlonega Gold Rush" in the north Georgia mountains precipitated the forced removal of the Cherokee nation.

Reaching further back
in history

Important background to current affairs

Theological rationale for conquest. The following excerpt is from "El Parecer de Yucay," a 1571 theological document commissioned to justify Spain’s colonization in the Americas.

        Its author asked, “What could it mean that God put these miserable Indians, so inept and beastly, in kingdoms so big . . . and lands so wonderful and so full of riches?” The answer is the form of a parable:

        “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. . . .

        “This is what I say about these Indians, that one of the means of their predestination and salvation were the mines, treasures and riches. . . .” —for more, see Toasts with the Inca: Andean Abstraction and Colonial Images on Quero Vessels by Thomas B. F. Cummins

¶ “In his farewell address to Congress in 1796, our first U.S. president, George Washington predicted that the flaws embedded in federalism, as it was set up in the Constitution, would eventually translate into incomprehensible misery for the American Indian. His biographer, Joseph Ellis, tells us that Washington, more than any other of our Founders, foresaw that “what was politically essential for a viable American nation was ideologically at odds with what it claimed to stand for.” —Paul VanDevelder, “Reckoning at Standing Rock: What to understand the pipeline protests? Start with the Founding Fathers," High Country News

There’s this. "He [the King of Great Britain] has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. —from the US Declaration of Independence

Then, there’s this. “It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire and the streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the stink and scent thereof; but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and [we] gave the praise thereof to God.” —William Bradford, governor of the early Plymouth Colony, writing in 1637 of his Pilgrim community’s annihilation of a Pequot Indian village along the Mystic River

¶ “Under the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, the United States pledged that the Great Sioux Reservation, including the Black Hills, would be "set apart for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation" of the Sioux Nation, and that no treaty for the cession of any part of the reservation would be valid as against the Sioux unless executed and signed by at least three-fourths of the adult male Sioux population.” A subsequent “agreement” provided subsistence rations for the starving Sioux, but signed only by 10% of its population, effectively abrogated the Fort Laramie Treaty.  —US Supreme Court, US v. Sioux Nation, 1980

¶ “. . . a more ripe and rank case of dishonorable dealings will never, in all probability, be found in our history.” —1974 US Court of Claims, quoted US Supreme Court, US v. Sioux Nation (1980), referencing the Fort Laramie Treaty

Consumerism as the new imperial strategy. In 1803 US President Thomas Jefferson wrote a confidential letter to Congress recognizing “The Indian tribes residing within the limits of the U.S. have for a considerable time been growing more & more uneasy at the constant diminution of the territory they occupy.” He recommended two measures. The first was to encourage Native Americans to take up agriculture.

        “Secondly to multiply trading houses among them & place within their reach those things which will contribute more to their domestic comfort, then the profession of extensive, but uncultivated wilds, experience & reflection will develop to them the wisdom of exchanging what they can spare & we want, for what we can spare and they want.” —"A Long History of Treaties,” nebraskastudies.org

¶ “When asked by an anthropologist what the Indians called America before the white man came, an Indian said simply, “Ours.” —Vine Deloria, Jr., author of Custer Died for Your Sins

In an 1892 letter to the Seneca spiritual leader Handsome Lake, President Thomas Jefferson wrote: “In all your enterprises for the good of your people, you may count with confidence on the aid and protection of the United States. You are our brethren of the same land; we wish your prosperity as brethren should do.” —Wikipedia

Preach it. A Cherokee elder sitting with his grandchildren told them, “In every life there is a terrible fight—a fight between two wolves. One is evil: he is fear, anger, envy, greed, arrogance, self-pity, resentment, and deceit. The other is good: joy, serenity, humility, confidence, generosity, truth, gentleness, and compassion.” A child asked, “Grandfather, which wolf will win?” The elder looked him in the eye. “The one you feed.”

“Trail of Tears” is generally used when speaking of the Cherokee removal—a death march, if you will, in which one of every four died en route—from 1836-1839, in accordance to Congress’ “Indian Relocation Act” of 1830. Sometimes, though, the phrase is used in relation to all Native Americans relocated from their land in the Southeast— including Muscogee, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw—to what is now Oklahoma.

Prior to their removal, the Cherokees took their case to the US Supreme Court—and won. President Andrew Jackson, who had pushed Congress to pass the 1930 Indian Removal Act, refused to enforce the decision. —"Trail of Tears," history.com

Can’t makes this sh*t up. “Tonight’s Ohio high school football game between the Greenfield-McClain Tigers and Hillsboro Indians featured this embarrassing banner (at left) presented by the Greenfield-McClain cheerleaders, promising a ‘Trail of Tears Part 2 for Hillsboro.” —Deadspin

Call to the table. “Lakota Dream Song,” The Lonely Bear Cub.

The state of our disunion. “Between 1778, when the Delawares ceded their land, and 1871, when the Nez Perce signed with the government, Congress ratified 371 treaties [all of which were broken or amended in deceptive ways]. Indians then owned about 140 million acres. . . . Today, Indians control 56 million acres— barely 2% of the US.” —Timothy Egan, “The Nation: Mending a Trail of Broken Treaties," New York Times

Altar call. “In the end, says the Western writer William Kittredge, reconciliation will be America’s only way out of that legacy of dishonor, the only sensible path to a future worth living—our Last Chance Saloon.” —Paul VanDevelder, “Reckoning at Standing Rock: What to understand the pipeline protests? Start with the Founding Fathers,” High Country News

The sun symbol (right) was important to many Native American nations. The Great American Plains tribes performed a Sun Dance each year at the summer solstice.

For the beauty of creation. NASA video of "Fiery looping rain on the sun."

Benediction. “In beauty I walk / With beauty before me I walk / With beauty behind me I walk / With beauty above me I walk / With beauty around me I walk / It has become beauty again.“ —closing prayer from the Navajo Way Blessing Ceremony

Recessional. “Lakota Lullaby,” Wayra, featuring famous artwork from J.D. Challenger, Kirby Sattler, and other famous artists.

Lectionary for Sunday next. “With feet-wearied hope doth my voice still rejoice.  / Incline us, consign us, to steadfast Embrace. / With glad songs of vict’ry, from the formerly vanquished, / let the festal procession loot the treasury of fear. / With soul-rested hope doth my voice still rejoice. / Incline us, consign us, to steadfast Embrace.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Mutinous lips,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 118

¶ See Ken Sehested's "How to support the Standing Rock action opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline" for a list of concrete suggestions and general commentary.

Postscript. When approaching Native American Indian culture (or any culture other than your own), do so with humility. There is a lot of culture-vulturing out there—duty-free, new-agey fluff and hucksterism passing as spirituality, as if it were a shiny bauble, free for the taking, stripped of actual grounding in communal life and material relations. —Ken Sehested, from “Confrontation at the Cannon Ball: The Dakota Access Pipeline”

Just for fun. “Native American Comedy.” (3:44 video)

#  #  #

Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “Mutinous lips,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 118

• “Confrontation on the Cannon Ball: The Dakota Access Pipeline”

Other feature

• “Vote, or don’t: The issues are larger than the election”

 
Resources for All Saints Day

• “All Saints Day,” a litany for worship 

• “For All the Saints,” new lyrics to an old hymn

• “Hallowed Week: A call to worship for All Hallowed Eve and All Saints Day,” by Abigail Hastings

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Language not otherwise indicated above is that of the editor. 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.

Kokopelli (right), among the most recognizable of Native American symbols, was depicted by southwestern tribal cultures as a hunchbacked flute player, revered as a fertility deity, a prankster and a storyteller.

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.