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Cuba’s Historic Crossroads

A new president—one not named Castro—will soon take office

By Stan Hastey

            Cuba stands at a crossroads unlike any other in the 59 years since a rebel army headed by Fidel Castro and his younger brother, Raul, defeated the supposedly far superior armed forces under the command of Fulgencio Batista. Batista, the last in a series of corrupt and repressive Cuban presidents backed and kept in power by the United States for the previous half century, fled the island nation as three columns of rebel soldiers bore down on Havana during Christmas week 1958. Declaring victory on New Year’s Day 1959, the three commanding officers—Raul Castro, Ernesto (Che) Guevara, and Camilo Cienfuegos—welcomed Fidel to Havana one week later, where the charismatic leader formally declared victory before a massive crowd of supporters convinced that a new day had dawned on the economically and educationally deprived nation.

Right: Cubans voting in precinct elections, November 2018.

            Among the undeniably significant achievements of the Castro brothers’ revolution have been the virtual elimination of illiteracy by means of a system of public education funded and overseen by the government from kindergarten through university graduate studies and a public health system premised on prevention that boasts a lower infant mortality rate than that of the United States. These are measurable successes.

            Yet another and overriding factor, this one immeasurable, has kept the Castro regime in power for the past two generations, namely, a fiercely held sense of nationalism that has persevered against all efforts by the U.S. to secure its demise. These include dozens, if not hundreds, of attempts by the Central Intelligence Agency to assassinate Fidel Castro and one failed invasion of Cuba undertaken by CIA-backed Cuban Americans at the aptly named Bay of Pigs.

            Toward the end of a long battle with an undisclosed gastrointestinal disorder, Fidel Castro in 2008 conferred power as head of state onto his brother Raul, who then was ratified as president by Cuba’s unicameral legislative body, the National Assembly of People’s Power. Nearly five years younger than his more celebrated brother, Raul announced last November that he will step down on April 19, 2018.

            On the most recent of my more than 30 visits to Cuba over the past 25 years, I sensed a restlessness in friends of long standing who over time have offered the benefit of their perspectives on their nation to this eager observer. Some of these have been openly supportive of the “revolutionary project.” Others have been either privately or publicly critical of the “excesses” of the Revolution. Most have verbalized both satisfaction and criticism, a not uncommon assessment of the state of their country. Their current unease has to do with uncertainty over the political future of Cuba, and specifically over the identity of Raul’s successor.

Left: US President Barack Obama arriving on Air Force One at the Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, 17 March 2016. Photo by Jose Luis Casal.

            What is known is that Cuba’s next president will be a communist who will not be popularly elected by citizens at large. As in Raul Castro’s selection to succeed his brother, the National Assembly will select the younger Castro brother’s successor. That alone will be a more than sufficient reason for the Trump administration to maintain a hard line on U.S.-Cuba relations. Although this is a story unto itself, here in brief is what this harder line is about.

            In December 2014, former President Barack Obama and Cuba’s President Raul Castro announced jointly a series of major changes in bilateral policies, the most significant and visible of which was the normalization of diplomatic relations between the countries. This was a dramatic reversal of the longstanding enmity between the two, dating to 1961 and President John F. Kennedy’s executive order severing relations. For the first time in six decades, the United States flag was to fly at a newly reopened U.S. embassy in Havana, while the Cuban flag was to go up at Cuba’s embassy in Washington.

            Sometimes referred to as “the Cuban thaw,” the new agreement was formalized on July 20, 2015, with the implementation of the joint Castro-Obama declaration. Besides renewing diplomatic relations, most travel restrictions were lifted on U.S. citizens’ travel to Cuba, the prohibition of remittances from the U.S. to Cuban banks was suspended, and some commercial restrictions were likewise ended.

            But relations reverted to nearly-Cold War status on June 16, 2017, scarcely five months into the administration of Donald Trump, when the newly inaugurated president issued an executive order of his own reinstating most travel restrictions and suspending commercial liberalization. Most of our diplomats at the U.S. embassy in Havana were recalled, and Trump ordered the expulsion of most of the Cuban diplomatic corps in Washington. Yet Trump chose not to break off diplomatic relations outright, an omission that did not go down well with wealthy Cuban American supporters, especially in south Florida, who accused him of failing to fulfill a more dramatic course of action promised them during the 2016 election campaign.

            During my most recent trip to Cuba in January, close friends there told me bluntly they don’t know what to expect with Raul Castro’s imminent retirement. Empathizing with their plight, I told them that in a very real sense many of us U.S. citizens feel the same way about our future under a Trump administration. In a way we reflect their uncertainty, albeit with significant variations. What is indisputable is that whomever the Cuban parliament selects as Cuba’s new president following nearly six decades during which the name Castro has followed the word “President,” bilateral relations between the United States and Cuba are newly imperiled for the foreseeable future.

            Still, this new reality does not get those of us who seek a new day in U.S.-Cuba relations off the hook. Led by groups such as the Latin America Working Group in Washington, an Alliance of Baptists partner organization, we will continue to seek a more fulsome and healthy future. We’ll continue to press for the lifting of restrictions on our travel to Cuba. We’ll lobby our government to restore the U.S. embassy in Havana to a full complement of consular officers so that Cubans wishing to travel to the U.S. will have at least an even chance of doing so. We’ll continue to demand that the Trump administration allow the Cuban embassy on 16th Street in Washington to be fully staffed in order to provide the full range of services that countries with normal diplomatic relations are supposed to provide to citizens of both countries.

            Finally and hardest of all, we need to bring unrelenting pressure on members of Congress to repeal the infamous Helms-Burton Act of 1996 making our economic embargo a matter of public law – understandably labeled a “blockade” by Cuba. That law, we need to remember, was enacted in the white-heat reaction of Congress to the shooting down of two small planes over international waters just off the Cuban coast. The government of Fidel Castro had warned the U.S. repeatedly that it would take such action unless the planes, owned and operated by an incorrigible group of fiercely anti-Castro Cuban Americans in Miami called “Brothers to the Rescue,” ceased and desisted from flying over Havana and other Cuban towns and cities dropping anti-Castro leaflets upon them. In fact, shortly before they were shot down on that fateful day, one of the two apparently had wandered into Cuba’s air space.

            Both houses of Congress acted swiftly and decisively. In the Senate, the vote to formalize the embargo – until then enforced by a long succession of presidential executive orders – was 96-4. President Bill Clinton signed Helms-Burton, which now can be brought down only by congressional action and the signature of another U.S. president. This is a tall order, to be sure, especially in the Trump era, fraught as it is with foreign policy crises spanning the globe.

            Yet this is a winnable fight. Many Republican governors, especially those in states whose commerce is dominated by agriculture, long ago joined the battle to liberalize trade relations with Havana. Such interests include, for example, the US Rice Producers Association representing producers of rice in six states. For years Cuba has imported about two-thirds of the rice consumed on the island from Vietnam and China. The rice producers want in on that market. They envision shiploads of rice going from Mobile, Ala., to Havana (not coincidentally, Mobile and Havana are sister cities); from Miami to Matanzas, Cuba; from New Orleans to Santiago de Cuba. And rice is but one example, as wheat- and corn-producing states in our Midwest likewise seek access to the Cuban market.

            Along with an impressive range of religious bodies, colleges and universities, and a host of other interested parties, we belong to a strong and growing lobbying effort in Washington seeking fundamental changes in U.S.-Cuba relations. Although we’ve all joined the fray from different perspectives, our mutual objective is clear. We seek a radically new approach in U.S. relations with Cuba, a small nation we have exploited in every way imaginable for far too long.

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Stan Hastey, a constitutional scholar, frequent traveler to and observer of U.S.-Cuban relations, was the first fulltime director of the Alliance of Baptists where he served for 20 years until his retirement in 2009.

Also by Stan Hastey: “Reflections on Changes in US-Cuba Relations” (Parts 1 & 2)

Other prayer&politiks articles on, about, or from Cuba:

 • “Thirty-five interesting facts about Cuba and its US relations,” by Ken Sehested

 • Special issue of “Signs of the Times” (31 January 2018) on Cuba’s electoral process

• “Bring Down the Wall in the Caribbean: A resolution in support of renewed diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba,” a United Church of Christ Synod resolution

 • “Martin Luther King Jr. in Cuba: A Cuban pastor's story of King's influence,” Rev. by Francisco Rodés

 • “A Cuban pastor responds to President Obama's visit,” by Rev. Eduardo Gonzalez

 • “Background to the touch down: President Barack Obama's historic visit to Cuba,” by Ken Sehested

• “Holy Obedience: One Christian’s story of civil disobedience (calling for the closure of Guantánamo Bay prison)”

• “My Sling is That of David: US-Cuba Relations as an emerging agenda,” by Ken Sehested

 • “Asheville Congregations Sends Delegation to Cuba”

 • “While Washing My Daughter's Feet,” by Kiran Sigmon, following a visit to Cuba

 • “Humbling, Sacred Moments:A Report on One Congregation’s Visit to Cuba,” by Beth Maczka

Reflections on Changes in US-Cuba Relations

by Stan Hastey, guest columnist

Part One

       Growing up in Mexico as a missionary kid gave me a different perspective on my native land. Whether always welcomed or not, I could not help but filter my own early sense of patriotism through the lenses of classmates. Their take on the United States was that of the colossus to the North that had stolen a huge section of their country in an illegitimate war and given it a new name—Texas.

       When Fidel Castro and his revolutionary compatriots seized control of Cuba on January 1, 1959, I was 14. In Torreón, the city in northern Mexico where my family lived during my junior and senior high school years (except for 11th grade in 1960-1961 when I attended Polytechnic High School in Fort Worth) spontaneous street celebrations broke out. It would take me a good while longer to understand better why Mexicans took such glee in the triumph of the Castro brothers, Che Guevara and the other bearded firebrands on a Caribbean island most of them never dreamed of visiting.

       What the crowds in Torreón and countless other cities and towns throughout Latin America were cheering was that an apparently rag-tag bunch of indigenous dreamers had run off a military dictator put in power by the United States of America. (This brings to mind another bit of hubris that we U.S. citizens tend to have, that of referring to the USA as “America” as though we owned the entire continent. My school friends, by the way, liked to make the point that the formal name of their country is the “United States of Mexico.”)

       Decades later, as leader of the Alliance of Baptists, I would have the extraordinary privilege of visiting Cuba 30 times, often in the company of delegations from Alliance-affiliated churches exploring partnerships with congregations of the Fraternidad de Iglesias Bautistas de Cuba. Nothing I did during 20 years with the Alliance gave me greater satisfaction.

       Often when speaking in Alliance churches about our Cuba connections, questions would be raised about why Cubans would put up with a communist dictatorship that had resulted in frequently severe deprivations of even the most basic of commodities. Reflecting on such inquiries, it occurred to me one day that on Cuba’s historical time line, the only period during which modern Cuba has been ruled by Cubans is 1959 forward. (By “modern” I mean since Christopher Columbus’ first landing in 1492 as he sought a route to India. Truly indigenous native peoples had lived in what is now Cuba for centuries before Columbus’ two visits.)

       In other words, Cubans themselves have been in charge of their own destiny for a mere 56 years of the 522-year colonial and post-colonial history of the island. As US citizens it is simply impossible for us to understand the depth of nationalistic fervor in Cuba about this historical legacy.

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Part Two

       Long gone is the immediate euphoria many sensed last December when President Raúl Castro of Cuba and U.S. President Barack Obama announced jointly from Havana and Washington that diplomatic ties between the long-estranged nations were to be restored. Since then the two leaders have met in what was reported as a significant exchange of views during the Summit of the Americas in Panama in April. In addition to this face-to-face encounter between heads of state, diplomatic teams from both countries have met twice—first in Havana, then in Washington—in what have been described as frank and difficult discussions.

        No one should be surprised, let alone dismayed, that the negotiations have been tense. After all, 50-plus years of outright hostilities cannot be undone in the course of a few meetings. Both governments are under pressure from factions within their own countries to preserve the status quo.

        Specifically on the U.S. side, the pieces of the proposed new relationship requiring congressional approval face determined opposition within key committees on both sides of Capitol Hill. In the Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker of Tennessee must deal with fierce opposition from two Cuban Americans on his panel—fellow Republican and announced presidential candidate Marco Rubio of Florida and the ranking Democrat, Robert Menendez of New Jersey. The latter was Corker’s predecessor as committee chairman before Republicans gained control of the Senate last year. For his part, Corker is one of only a handful of Republican senators whose inclinations are to bridge differences and produce results.

        Should Corker be inclined to move legislation dealing with U.S.-Cuba relations, he can count on the unabashed support of fellow Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, who for years has advocated the normalization of diplomatic and economic ties with Cuba. Flake is not the only Republican senator who wants to see an end to antiquated policies that hurt both countries. Numerous others are from states where farmers are hurting for overseas markets to sell their produce. Virtually every national association of farmers long has lobbied hard for the restoration of economic ties. Some of the most intense pressure has been directed at senators from southern states that comprise the rice belt.

        For years, Republican governors of some of these states likewise have themselves lobbied Washington to remove trade barriers that hurt their economies. Among these is Alabama, whose port city of Mobile is the sister city to Havana, Cuba’s capital. Cuba imports 70 percent of the rice consumed by the island’s 11 million people, most of it from China and Vietnam. Common sense has it that Cuba would pay a lot less to have rice shipped from Mobile to Havana, thus benefiting both the island’s economy and that of rice farmers in Alabama.

        Another clear example of the same economic incentive for restored trade is Louisiana. Now that the shipping industry in and around New Orleans is flourishing following years of slow recovery from Hurricane Katrina’s devastation, ships moving goods from the Crescent City to Havana would amount to a boon to Louisiana’s economy, as well as that of several Midwestern states that ship corn, wheat and other agricultural produce down the Mississippi to the Port of New Orleans. Governors of both parties from these states long have pressured Washington to restore relations, knowing that trade with Cuba would provide relief to their beleaguered farm industries.

        Unfortunately, prospects for favorable action in the House of Representatives are more troublesome, particularly within the lower chamber’s Committee on Foreign Affairs. Panel Chairman Edward R. Royce of California repeatedly has scolded President Obama since the announcement last December that the administration would seek to renew diplomatic relations with Havana. Besides Royce, the House panel includes Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban American whose opposition to the Castro regime is legendary. A former chairwoman of the committee, Royce refers to her as “Chairman Emeritus.”

        Further, Ros-Lehtinen sits on the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, whose ranking minority member is Rep. Albio Sires of New Jersey, another Cuban American long opposed to changes in U.S. policy toward Cuba. The subcommittee chairman, Rep. Jeff Duncan of South Carolina, also is fiercely opposed to normalizing relations with Havana.

        In addition, the House Committee on Appropriations will have to approve funds in President Obama’s budget to reopen a U.S. embassy in Cuba as well as any other changes in policy requiring tax dollars. Although Chairman Hal Rogers of Kentucky takes a measured approach toward renewed relations with Cuba, he must deal with and somehow accommodate another Cuban American member, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Miami, a determined foe of any liberalization in U.S.-Cuba policy. Further, Diaz-Balart is a key player on the Appropriations subcommittee that would first approve funds needed for liberalizing relations. That panel’s chairwoman, Rep. Kay Granger of Texas, is yet another outspoken Republican opposing changes in Cuba policy.

        Despite all these challenges, the conventional wisdom in Washington is that the new policies now in process of implementation will take hold and carry the day in the end. One reason for such hope is the key role being played by Pope Francis, who personally met with and helped persuade Raúl Castro and Barack Obama to seek to normalize diplomatic and economic ties. By now it is clear that when this pope speaks even heads of state listen.

        Another reason for hope is the skill of Cuba specialists in Washington who long have lobbied for significant changes in U.S. policy with our Caribbean neighbor. One of the best of these is Mavis Anderson of the Latin America Working Group, a partner organization with the Alliance of Baptists. For the past two decades, the Alliance has depended on and supported the LAWG in its tireless efforts lobbying Congress and a succession of administrations of both parties to normalize relations with Havana.

Rev. Dr. Stan Hastey, a veteran Cuba traveler and US-Cuba policy analyst, is the interim preaching minister at First Baptist Church, Washington, DC. He served for 20 years as director of the Alliance of Baptists.

Cuba’s historic electoral process November 2017 – April 2018

For the first time since its revolution, Cuba will not have a president named Castro

by Ken Sehested

        You will be excused for not knowing that Cuba is in the midst of a historic electoral process which, when completed, will feature a Cuban president not named Castro. (It’s quite possible you didn’t even know Cuba had elections.)

        The process began on 26 November 2017 when citizens went to polling stations in every district across the country to select leaders to serve on ward [precinct] and municipal governing bodies as “delegates.” On 11 March, candidates for provincial and national legislatures will be chosen. The National Assembly will then chose a new president to succeed Raúl Castro, who retires on 19 April.

        For the first time since the country’s 1959 revolution, Cuba will not have a president named Castro.

Right: Precinct voting in Cuba. Older children (under age 16) serve as poll monitors.

¶ What follows is a bit more background on Cuba’s electoral process.

            • Cuba’s recent election is the first of three stages in choosing their provincial and national assemblies. A field of 27,000 candidates were on the ballot in 12,515 wards, with 11,415 members of Municipal legislators elected. Of those, 35.4% were women and 14.3% were “youth” (up to age 29). —for more see Telesur

        • All citizens older than 16, who not suffering from mental illness or are in prison, are eligible to vote. Neither voters nor candidates are required to be members of the Communist Party. Campaigning is illegal. Voters learn of the candidates in their districts by reading short biographical sketches (with photos) posted on store windows and, of course, in conversation with neighbors.

        • The Miami Herald, one of the few publications in the US covering the election, ran the headline, “Cuba had the lowest election turnout in four decades. Is the government losing its grip?”

        • In fact, 85.9% of eligible voters in Cuba cast ballots—7.6 million of the country’s 8.8 million eligible voters. In US presidential elections, average turnout over the last 50 years is less than 55%. In mid-term elections that number goes down to 34.4. In most major cities, fewer than 15% of eligible voters participate. —for more see Drew DeSilver, “US trails most developed countries in voter turnout,” Pew Research Center; PBS News Hour; Kriston Capps, CityLab)

        • The ban on election campaigning is justified as a sanction against “million–dollar election campaigns where resorting to insults, slander and manipulation are the norm.” (“Elections in Cuba,” Wikipedia) That “million-dollar” statement is badly out of date. Cost of the 2016 US election was $6,444,253,265. —“Cost of election,” Center for Responsive Politics

        • Provincial and national assembly members will be selected from those “nominated by the municipal assemblies from lists compiled by national, provincial and municipal candidacy commissions. The final list of candidates for the National Assembly, one for each district, is drawn up by the National Candidacy Commission; however, voters can veto a candidate because if a candidate fails to gain 50% of the vote, a new candidate must be chosen.” —for more see “Elections in Cuba,” Wikipedia

        • Cuba’s “Council of State” is a 31-member body elected by the National Assembly. It exercises legislative power between the biannual meetings of the National Assembly and can also call for special sessions of the Assembly. —Wikipedia, “Council of State (Cuba)”

¶ Here’s what I’ve learned about the electoral process from a group of pastors in Cuba:

        • At the precinct (also called “ward”) candidates are nominated and elected by popular vote. Elected representatives at the precinct and municipal levels are called “delegates.” At they provincial and national levels, they are called “deputies.”

        • The Council of State appoints the electoral commission for National Assembly elections, which must be composed of at least 50% of local district (ward) delegates. The electoral commission for the National Assembly selects the provincial commission members, which then selects the municipal commission. Only at the precinct level do voters nominate or vote for candidates.

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News, views, notes, and quotes

Signs of the Times  •  31 March 2018 •  No. 157

Processional. “The Angel Cried, Christ Has Risen,” Russian Orthodox Chant for Easter.

Above: Memphis, Tennessee sanitation workers on strike, 1968.

Invocation. “Shake out your qualms. / Shake up your dreams. / Deepen your roots. / Extend your branches. / Trust deep water / and head for the open, / even if your vision / shipwrecks you. / Quit your addiction / to sneer and complain. / Open a lookout. / Dance on a brink. / Run with your wildfire. / You are closer to glory / leaping an abyss / than upholstering a rut.” —excerpt from James Broughton’s “Easter Exultet”

Call to worship. “We could be free / If we only knew we were slaves to the pains of each other / One thing I believe I can learn / To see my enemy as my brother / Then we could be free, truly / Then love could wash away all the sorrows / I'm not afraid to bleed / If it means, we'll make a better today not tomorrow.” —rapper Vic Mensa, “We Could Be Free”

Why Easter is called Easter, and other little-known facts about the holiday

Hymn of praise. “Good News From the Graveyard,” Southern Raised.

Confession. Nine-year-old Yolanda Renee King, Martin Luther King Jr.’s granddaughter, leading the crowd in a chant, “spread the word” at the “March For Our Lives” rally. (1:57 video)

Key to Easter chic is palette. “Fuzzy chicks and cut bunnies are part of the pastel pantheon of Easter décor, and their charm helps define the look of the season. . . . The key to a modern Easter look is simple, according to Kevin Sharkey, executive creative director for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia: 'It’s about a controlled color palette.'
            “At allyou.com, find instructions for turning eggshells into tiny votive holders, nestled in silver egg cups—an elegant Easter dinner idea. Spring hues and simple style elements will take your Easter décor from sweet to sublime.” —Kim Cook, Associated Press

¶ “I am here today to acknowledge and represent the African America girls whose stories don’t make the front page of every national newspaper.” —11-year-old Naomi Wadler (pictured at right), speaking (4:03 video) at the March For Our Lives rally, 24 March, Washington, DC 

Words of assurance. “The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the Lord, ‘Save my life!’ Return, O my soul, to your rest.” —“Psalm 16,” Father Serafim, Assyrian Eastern Orthodox chant.

Professing our faith. The “March For Our Lives” commentary (7:01) by Emma González, the stunningly articulate Douglas High School shooting survivor, may go down in our nation’s history as among the greatest examples of public rhetoric. (When she stops and stands motionless and silent, stay with it—what the silence means will be revealed.)

¶ “I am not ashamed to admit it. They made me do it. Cry. More than once. ‘They’ being the uncommonly common students who led the March For Our Lives rally—three-quarters of a million strong—in Washington, DC. The day may well be accounted as among the most significant in our nation’s history.” —continue reading “Whisper words of wisdom, let it be Commentary on the March For Our Lives rally in Washington, DC”

Hymn of resolution. “Come senators, congressmen / Please heed the call / Don't stand in the doorway / Don't block up the hall / For he that gets hurt / Will be he who has stalled / There's a battle outside ragin' / It'll soon shake your windows / And rattle your walls / For the times they are a-changin'.” —Jennifer Hudson, “For the Times They Are A-Changin,” at the March For Our Lives rally in Washington, DC

¶ “Six victors for the gun control movement since the Parkland massacre.” —Amanda Holpuch, The Guardian

Another significant student-organized march. Starkville, Mississippi, is not among the list of cities that spring immediately to mind for having LGBTQ Pride parades. But that changed last Saturday, when some 3,000 marched through downtown for what Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill called “the biggest parade we’ve ever had in Starkville, absolute biggest.” City permit for the march was originally denied by the town’s aldermen but later reversed. March organizer Bailey McDaniel, along with her partner, Emily Turner (see photo at left), “I’m thankful for Starkville Police, they were amazing,” McDaniel said. “We took a huge group photo after. Chief (Frank Nichols) was on our side.” —Ryan Phillips, Starkville Daily News

Short story. “As the E.B. White watched his wife Katherine planning the planting of bulbs in her garden in the last autumn of her life, he wrote,
         "‘There was some thing comical yet touching in her bedraggled appearance . . . the small hunched-over figure, her studied absorption in the implausible notion that there would be yet another spring, oblivious to the ending of her own days, which she knew perfectly well was near at hand, sitting there with her detailed chart under those dark skies in dying October, calmly plotting the resurrection.’
            "Katherine was a member of the resurrection conspiracy, the company of those who plant seeds of hope under dark skies of grief or oppression, going about their living and dying until, no one knows how, when or where, the tender Easter shoots appear, and a piece of creation is healed." —Robert Raines

Hymn of intercession. “What language shall I borrow  / to thank thee, dearest friend,  / for this thy dying sorrow,  / thy pity without end?  / O make me thine forever;  / and should I fainting be,  / Lord, let me never, never  / outlive my love for thee.” —Darrell Adams, in a gorgeous rendition of  “O Sacred Head Now Wounded”

¶ “I have the clear sense that, despite your tender age, you intuitively understand the curious relation between suffering and joy, between despair and hopefulness. My reason for writing this letter to you is so that you may more fully comprehend this confusing, seemingly contradictory reality. For though we celebrate Easter's resurrection announcement, the stench of death is still in the air.” —continue reading “Open Letter to My Daughter: Easter morning, with the stench of death still in the air” written in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War

¶ “We’re going to be the generation that takes down the gun lobby.” So said Marisa Pyle, 20, to a group of several hundred people gathered in the North Georgia mountain town of Dahlonega, in one of over 800 parallel March For Our Lives rallies around the nation (and in several other countries).

Preach it. “Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with. It was in an uproar because it is mocked. It was in an uproar, for it is destroyed. It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated. It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive. Hell took a body, and discovered God. It took earth, and encountered Heaven. It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see. O death, where is thy sting? O Hades, where is thy victory?
         “Christ is Risen, and you, O death, are annihilated! Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down! Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!” —excerpt from The Easter Sermon of John Chrysostom, pastor of Constantinople (c. 400 CE)

"Last Friday several of the youth in our congregation joined several others from another congregation in our city, making the long drive to Washington, DC, to take part in Saturday’s “March For Our Lives” rally against gun violence.
        "My wife Nancy, Circle of Mercy’s co-pastor, met them at the rendezvous point to offer a blessing on their journey. She said two things." —continue reading “Blessed are you if you do them: Maundy Thursday’s mandate” 

Can’t makes this sh*t up. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (which coordinates response to natural disasters) recently issued a new “strategic plan” for the coming four years, failed to mention climate change, global warming, sea-level rises, extreme weather, or any other terminology associated with scientific predictions of rising temperatures and their effects. —see Jessica Corbett, CommonDreams

Left: “Resurrection,” ©Julie Lonneman

Call to the table. “Bind up these broken bones / Mercy bend and bring me back to life / But not before You show me how to die / No, not before You show me how to die.” —Audrey Assad, “Show Me”

¶ “To preach to the powerful without denouncing oppression is to promise Easter without Calvary, forgiveness without conversion, and healing without cleansing the wound." —excerpt from “What We Have Seen and Heard: A Pastoral Letter on Evangelization From the Black Bishops of the United States,” 1984

The state of our disunion. Remember the stories of Wells Fargo bank last year, when harried employees, desperate to make productivity quotas, open fraudulent accounts in customers’ names; and then charged customers for auto insurance which they didn’t request or need? Well, the company then gave Tim Sloan, their CEO, a 35% pay raise. —see Julia Conley, CommonDreams

Best one-liner. “Argue like you’re right; listen as if you’re wrong.” —author unknown (Thanks Amelia)

This coming week, Wednesday 4 April, is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., while he was in Memphis, Tennessee, supporting the sanitation workers’ strike. Below are a few resources to prepare for this historic occasion:

        • “I Have Been to the Mountaintop,” —address (43:14 audio) at Mason Temple in Memphis, Tenn., the night of 3 April 1968, the night before his assassination.

        • Excerpts (22:14) of the "I Have Been to the Mountaintop" speech along with photos, video clips and commentary from some of his colleagues.

Left: Portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by Bruni Sablan.

        • Brief excerpt of the speech’s key lines. (2:37 video)

        • Images from the 1968 Memphis sanitation worker strike. (3:30 video)

        • “Memphis sanitation workers remember the 1968 strike, 40 years later.” —Commercial Appeal (3:59 video) 

For the beauty of the earth. Having been reared (mostly) in West Texas, this video (4:43) of the region, using stunning photos by Wyman Meinzer, music by Doug Smith, takes me back.

Altar call. “One empty tomb poses no threat / to present entanglements, / any more than annual and / specially-adorned sanctuary / crowds encroach on Easter morn. / It’s Easter’s aftermath / resurrectus contagio, / contagious resurrection / that threatens entombing empires / with breached sovereignty.” —continue reading “Easter’s aftermath”

Benediction. “May Easter’s affection / spawn many children / who know / despite the trouble / the toil / the rubble strewn soil / the way of the cross leads home.” —“Easter’s affection”

Recessional. Someday our Easter recessional will be this: “Boogie Contest at Rock That Swing 2016”

Lectionary for this Sunday. “With glad songs of vict’ry, from the formerly vanquished, / let the festal procession loot the treasury of fear.” —continue reading “Mutinous lips,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 118

Lectionary for Sunday next. “We come to confession fearfully, for the god of Maximum Return has confused and confounded us. / So we denounce this god, in the name of the God Without Price. / In the Name of the One Who established the earth’s bounty and purse as available to all.” —continue reading “The God Without Price,” a litany for worship inspired by Isaiah 55 and Acts 4:32-35

Right: photo by Wes Granberg-Michaelson.

Just for fun. Watch this Italian grandmother learning how to use a Google Home device! (2:23 video. Thanks Linda.)

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Featured this week on prayer&politiks

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

• “Whisper words of wisdom, let it be," commentary on the March For Our Lives rally in Washington, DC

• “Who gonna’ roll that stone?” an Easter sermon, Marion Correctional Institution, based on John 20:1-18

• “Easter’s aftermath,” a poem for Eastertide

• “The God Without Price,” a litany for worship inspired by Isaiah 55 and Acts 4:32-35

Other features

• “Open Letter to My Daughter: Easter morning, with the stench of death still in the air” written in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War

• “Blessed are you if you do them: Maundy Thursday’s mandate,” an essay on why understanding Maundy Thursday's significance is key to understanding not only Good Friday but also Easter

Above: Sculpted relief by Margaret Beaudette of Mary Magdalene proclaiming "The First Easter Homily"

©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.

 

Open Letter to My Daughter

Easter morning, with the stench of death still in the air

by Ken Sehested
Eastertide 1991

Background. In 1991, after hearing that the bombing had begun in Iraq, I knew I had to respond—respond in a way like never before. After discussing it with my family and then with a clearness committee of trusted friends, I began a bread-and-water fast. It started on Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, and lasted until Easter morning.

To prepare for the breaking of the fast I invited friends in Memphis to join me in a sunrise eucharistic service at the “Yellow Fever Martyrs Memorial and Mass Grave” park (right) on the banks of the Mississippi River, honoring those who died while tending the sick during several yellow fever epidemics that swept through the city in the 1870s. I asked my oldest daughter, 14 years old at the time, to preside at the meal. During the following week I wrote her the following open letter to further interpret the season just past.

_______________

Dear Jessica,

      Never before have you seen your father weep so bitterly, so publicly, with so much pain, as I did six-and-a-half weeks ago on Wednesday evening, January 16, upon hearing the news that the U.S. had begun bombing Iraq. But neither have you seen me standing, looking at you this Easter morning, with so much pride, with so much joy, with so much hope.

      No doubt my earlier tears frightened you at first. And you were probably unsure of what I was doing when I first talked with you in early February about my desire to begin the bread-and-water fast for Lent. But now, with this morning's Eucharist, you are ministering to me as I break this fast of repentance to proclaim Easter's promise that death does not have the last word in creation.

      I have the clear sense that, despite your tender age, you intuitively understand the curious relation between suffering and joy, between despair and hopefulness. My reason for writing this letter to you is so that you may more fully comprehend this confusing, seemingly contradictory reality. For though we celebrate Easter's resurrection announcement, the stench of death is still in the air.

      Even before our resurrection flowers have wilted, we will be confronted again with the presence of evil. Since Easter falls early in the calendar this year, in the coming resurrection week we will be forced to remember the enduring power of death. In 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor, was executed two days after Easter Sunday by the Nazis for resisting their authority. This next Thursday, April 4, we will remember the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. right here in Memphis. And right now, half a world away, the terror of our country's military power is manifest in unspeakable devastation.

      God may be in the heavens, but all is surely not right with the world. Jesus' defeat of the world's power of crucifixion didn't make things all right. You may ask, How honest is it for us to celebrate Easter's resurrection when so much blood continues to be shed? How can we proclaim Easter's promise in an increasingly violent world? Doesn't the world snicker at resurrection claims? In fact, doesn't most of the church secretly ignore this promise? These questions must be faced.

      In our sunrise service this morning, many shared stories of our baptism. We've done so because the tradition in the early church was to baptize new believers on Easter morning, just as you yourself were plunged beneath the water—lowered by your mother and me into that healing flood—on Easter morning five years ago. . . .

      As you know, early on the church's observance of the Lord's Supper was linked to the renewal of baptismal vows, as a time to recall that old ways are past and new ways have come, that the old order of domination and violence has ended and that the new order of justice, mercy and peace has begun. As the Scriptures say, whenever one is in Christ—baptized into Jesus' life, death and resurrection—there is a new creation. The joy meal is our foretaste—our aperitif—that a new reality has been made manifest, been made flesh; and it is the announcement that a rupture has occurred—that, as Jesus said, "Behold I make all things new."

      By asking you to lead in our communion meal this morning, I am trying to tell you something very important, something which most of the Christian community in our culture has forgotten, something which many Christian leaders work hard to suppress. The disturbing message of the eucharistic meal is this:

      There is no resurrection by proxy. {Vincent Harding}

      You may know that when shareholders of a large company have a business meeting, any of them can vote by proxy, which means they can authorize someone else to stand in for them, to vote in their place. They don't have to be personally present.

      But there is no resurrection by proxy. No one can stand in for you. You have to be personally present. One of my favorite spirituals says: "Take me to the water, to be baptized. My mother cannot carry me. . . . My father cannot carry me. . . . The preacher cannot carry me, to be baptized." But the last verse says, "My Jesus, he will carry me, to be baptized." As much as I, as you father, would like to spare you the pain of discipleship, I nor anyone else can do that. We can't send a substitute to take your place. You have to be there in person.

      There's an old French proverb that says: To love is to suffer. That's a good way to sum up the meaning of the Christian season of Lent. Most of our culture prefers to celebrate Valentine's Day [February 14 that year] rather than Ash Wednesday [February 13 that year]. Most people are repulsed by the thought of smudging ashes on the forehead in the shape of a cross. Most, even in the church, shy away from the mark of crucifixion. Instead of the body-broken, blood-spilt meal which Jesus offered, most prefer the empty calories of candy. Valentine candy is the Gospel of our culture.

      But there is no resurrection by proxy. To love as God loves results in suffering as God suffers. Jesus—whom we speak of as "God's only begotten"—represents that painful affirmation.

      As you know, President Bush, in referring to the military victory in the Middle East, has talked a lot recently about a "new world order." But there is absolutely nothing new about the world order he envisions. It is an order built on the power of violence, on the rule of the gun barrel. In George Bush's order, in Saddam Hussein's order, only the strong survive. And their survival comes at the cost of much blood.

      Certainly there is a similarity between Bush's "new world order" and the new order which Jesus proclaimed. For your survival as a believer also comes at the cost of blood. But the difference is that those who live according to the old world order are required to shed the blood of others in order to maintain their power. Your power—the power of the believing community—comes in your ability to voluntarily give your own blood, to absorb violence rather than to retaliate, to suffer rather than to inflict suffering.

      In the end, only bloody timbers make for lasting peace. Only suffering love can bring reconciliation. Martin Luther King Jr. said it well, speaking out of the context of painful personal experiences in the Civil Rights Movement: "To our most bitter opponents we say: 'We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. . . . But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.'"

      In the end, only bloody timbers make for peace. Only suffering love can bring reconciliation. The power of God to bring salvation comes only by relinquishing the very things which the world thinks are essential to being safe. Thus, as the Scriptures say, Jesus did not count himself equal with God, but relinquished that privilege so that the gulf of violence and enmity might finally be bridged. Rather, "he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant" and "humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2: 8, 9).

      I realize that all this talk about suffering sounds so harsh, so frightening, so morbid. The irony is that the opposite is true. The truth of the matter is that, as the old hymn says, "the way of the cross leads home." In the suffering we find our highest calling, because the suffering leads to healing and wholeness, leads to redemption. The voluntary shedding of our own blood washes clean the bitterness which infects the world. As Jesus said, only when we lose our lives will we find them. Only as we humble ourselves—associate with and tend to the needs of the lowly, the despised, the poor—only then will we be raised to the joy of living.

      Your life in God's Spirit is actually the very reason you will know suffering, the reason you will know sadness and disappointment. Not that suffering is good! It most certainly is not, and you should never, ever seek it. But it will find you, simply because God is looking, through the eyes of your soul, at creation as it was intended from the beginning. And when you see what God intended, what is now visible brings great sadness. And this sadness will cause you to be near those who suffer, to experience their pain, to attempt to bring healing and hope. You can't bring healing and hope from a safe distance. You have to get up close, which inevitably will mean you will feel the pain yourself.

      Nevertheless, rejoice! Rejoice, even in your suffering, for God is at work redeeming creation. Rejoice, even in your suffering, for you are one of God's instruments of redemption. Rejoice, even in your suffering, for redemption is not simply your personal possession, but is being extended—through you and other believers—across the whole world.

      At Easter we remember the announcement of this resurrection moment. But there is no resurrection by proxy. We must personally enter into God's drama of redemption. We must, as Jesus commanded, pick up our own cross and follow.

      May you and I both continue to learn these things—and continue to teach these things to each other—all the days of our lives.

      Love, Dad.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

The God Without Price

Litany of confession and pardon, inspired by Isaiah 55 and Acts 4:32-35

by Ken Sehested

Call to Confession

The Word of Strong Deliverance is whispered in the ears of all who long for the relief of pardon. “Listen,” says the Assuring One, “all of you who thirst for righteousness, who hunger for justice, come to the waters. All of you who know you are broke, who have no way of buying your freedom, no way of bargaining for joy—come, buy, eat and rejoice!”

Here, in this Circle, the good news is learned: “Come, buy wine and milk with neither cash nor credit. Provision is freely offered, but only to those acquainted with their penniless condition.”

Here, in this Circle, the secret is broadcast to a world built on deception: Your anxious toil buys bread that does not satisfy. You languish in illusion. Lay down the labor which separates each from the other—and from The Other.

Litany of Response

Bare your hearts as you approach this table of bounty.

We come to confession uneasily.

For we fear that our lives have come up short.

We come to confession fretfully.

For we fear that a spotlight of shame will shine on our failed dreams and frail hopes.

We come to confession fearfully, for the god of Maximum Return has confused and confounded us.

So we denounce this god, in the name of the God Without Price.

In the Name of the One Who established the earth’s bounty and purse as available to all.

Having passed through the waters of baptism, and tested in the desert of deception, we come confessing and pardoned to the table of bounty. It’s fiesta time!

Burst forth in song, you mountains! Clap your hands all you trees of the forest! For God is not done. Deliverance is at hand!

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The phrase "God of Maximum Return" comes from my friend, Andy Loving.
©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

Whisper words of wisdom, let it be

Commentary on the March For Our Lives rally in Washington, DC

by Ken Sehested
Saturday 24 March 2018

I am not ashamed to admit it. They made me do it. Cry. More than once. “They” being the uncommonly common students who led the March For Our Lives rally—three-quarters of a million strong—in Washington, DC. The day may well be accounted as among the most significant in our nation’s history.

What makes all of us commoners uncommon is when we experience the pain of trauma up close and personal, find the resilience to endure, take a hammer of righteous rage to that trauma and pound it on the forge of conviction that another world is possible, another way will open if we hold out, hold on, hold up, and hold over—over against those who say things can’t change, that’s the way it is, get over it, in our kiss-up-and-kick-down culture.

I cannot recall the last time a series of commentators and music makers lifted my soul so high, one after another in tight harmony, pulsing drama, such seasoned wisdom from such youthful demeanor, delivered dolce to duramente, pianissimo to fortissimo. Even the screams were winsome.

The racial mix of those on the stage and in the audience was heartening. I was beginning to fear that the Parkland student movement might become segregated by inherited race and class legacies, divorced from the languishing outcry, entangled in a much longer history, from people of color. But time after time, these students expressly acknowledged these fractures and vowed to confront them.

One young speaker was so embroiled in emotion that she threw up; but then, gathering herself, had the presence of mind to evoke laughter from the audience, saying “I just threw up on national television!”

One of her peers stepped forward, silently, encouraging black hand on vulnerable white shoulder. It was an unscripted prophetic moment all by itself.

There were too many splendid moments to name. Here is a sampling of highlights you might want to catch if you didn’t see them:

•Rapper Vic Mensa’s “We Could Be Free,” with these lines, “We could be free / If we only knew we were slaves to the pains of each other / One thing I believe I can learn / To see my enemy as my brother / Then we could be free, truly / Then love could wash away all the sorrows / I'm not afraid to bleed / If it means, we'll make a better today not tomorrow.”

•Nine-year-old Yolanda Renee King, Martin Luther King Jr.’s granddaughter, leading the crowd in a chant, “spread the word.” (1:57)

•Emma González, the stunningly articulate Douglas High School shooting survivor, who takes my breath away every time I’ve heard her speak in recent weeks. When she stops and stands motionless and silent, stay with it—what the silence means will be revealed. (7:01)

•Here’s a good summary of the day’s event, from around the country: Michael D. Shear, “Done Hiding’: Students Lead Huge Rallies for Gun Control Across the U.S.” New York Times

What will come of all this? That’s to be determined. The drama of marches must eventually meld into disciplined, strategic actions to affect public policy. If I were a betting man, I’d lay my money on this outcome:

“We’re going to be the generation that takes down the gun lobby.” So said Marisa Pyle, 20, to a group of several hundred people gathered in the North Georgia mountain town of Dahlonega, in one of over 800 parallel March For Our Lives rallies around the nation (and in several other countries).

For now, we pray the Lennon-McCartney prayer: "Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be. Whisper words of wisdom, let it be."

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©ken sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

This is something you must do

This Saturday. You need to be there. Even if it’s inconvenient. Even if you have to travel some distance. Even if you have to rearrange your day. Dare to be bothered. Endure whatever bad weather brings your way. Even if you had other plans, postpone them. Allow whatever discomfort you endure to signify your commitment in addressing the outrage in which we now live.

Collar one or more of your friends and say, “I really need you to do this with me..”

Support our young people in calling for sensible gun policy reforms. The weight these young people bring to the public debate may very well tip the balance and overthrow the NRA’s stranglehold on our public policy decision making.

Our nation is an outlier among the family of nations in the easy access to guns we allow resulting in 20 times or more deaths compared to other nations, who look at us with pity and alarm. Our nation is at war in several countries; and yet the deaths of children by guns in our own nation far surpasses the fatality rate of our troops in combat abroad.

If you’re never marched, well, this is your exception. It is literally the case that lives depend on your presence. Many people profit from the way things are, and it will take a massive turnout to disrupt the political equilibrium that keeps things the way they are. Our elected officials are scared to death of the clout the NRA brings to the table. This march will indicate to our public servants that we—who formerly stayed on the sideline in this debate—are now up on our feet, lending our voices, and providing the needed political coverage for legislators to reclaim their courage.

This Saturday, young people (and supportive families) will undertake a “March for Our Lives” in the US and worldwide, calling for an end to gun violence. There are already 763 events on the schedule. Go here <goo.gl/syaqFK> for a searchable database to see if one is planned in your vicinity.

If you don’t have children or grandchildren of your own at stake, do it for the children in your church, the children in your neighborhood, the children in the nearby schools. Let your legs do you praying for what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called “The Beloved Community.”

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News, views, notes, and quotes

Signs of the Times  •  22 March 2018 •  No. 156

Processional. “All Glory, Laud and Honor,” Palm Sunday procession, Church of St. Mary the Virgin, New York City.

Above: Rainbow Mountain (aka “Vinicunca”), Peru. “The reason we see the rainbow coloration in the stratigraphic layers of the Ausangate Mountains is largely due to weathering and mineralogy. Red coloration of sedimentary layers often indicates iron oxide rust as a trace mineral.” —for more see Geologist Trevor Nace, Forbes

Invocation. “Is there no song to be sung, no bell to be rung, no laughter from the fields at play with their yield? Morning by morning my Sovereign awaits my wakeful embrace of the dawn. My ears rise, eager, despite my heart’s meager consent to the summons of grace.” —continue reading “ Sustain the weary with a word,” a litany for worship inspired by Isaiah 50:4-9a

Call to worship. Celebrating the spring equinox: Listen to English actress Noma Dumezweni's beautiful reading of Wordsworth's “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.” (1:24 video. Thanks Rose.)

Join our youth in Saturday’s “March for Our Lives,” in Washington, DC, or in your own town. On 24 March, young people (and supportive families) will undertake a “March for Our Lives” in the US and worldwide, calling for an end to gun violence. There are already 763 events on the schedule. Go here for a searchable database to see if one is planned where (or near) you live.  Also, see the New York Times pictorial summary from 14 March’s “School Walkout: Photos From Across the Nation.”

Introduction to this issue.

        I can testify that in compiling “Signs of the Times” I spend proportionately far more effort locating “good news” stories than bad. Generally speaking, when it comes to traffic lights, our complaints over red ones far exceeds our rejoicing at green ones. In our letters to the editor, you and I and everybody I know are more likely to take the trouble of registering a complaint than expressing gratitude.

        In recognition of these realities, this issue of “Signs of the Times” focuses on some of the good news surrounding climate change responses—without any hint that there’s plenty of despairing news available. —read the entire piece, “Why good news is harder to find than bad news”

Hymn of praise. “They That Wait (Upon the Lord),” UC Berkeley Chorus & Contare Con Vivo.

There are now 3 rivers—one in New Zealand and two in India—that legally have the same rights as humans. —Adam Taylor, Washington Post

¶ “Sweden is so good at recycling that, for several years, it has imported rubbish from other countries to keep its recycling plants going. Less than 1 per cent of Swedish household waste was sent to landfill last year or any year since 2011.” —Hazel Sheffield, Independent (Thanks Scott.)

Audacious nuns. This was the scene as the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, a Catholic order of nuns, dedicated their new open-air chapel. (See photo at left.) But this open-air chapel isn't just for prayers. It's a protest. It's built directly in the path of an incoming natural gas pipeline. —for more see James Gaines, Upworthy. Photo above: Sister Janet McCann at the chapel's dedication. Photo from David Jones/Lancaster Against Pipelines.

Confession. “When you don’t want to see, you don’t see.” —Pope Francis, after seeing the destruction caused by Hurricane Irma in areas of the Caribbean

¶ “We all know the bad news when it comes to climate change. What most people don’t know is that there is also a lot of good news. In this video (3:16) we explore some of that good news, like the fact that real solutions exist and that we’re already seeing the benefits of them. “ —The Climate Reality Project

Hymn of supplication. “Holy Spirit, welcome / You are welcome here / Guide us, Holy Spirit / Speak to us again.” —English translation of lyrics to “Wairua Tapu,” traditional song of the Maori people of New Zealand, performed by Gondwana Cantique

¶ In recent weeks several major institutions have announcing or seriously considering withdrawal from investing in fossil fuel companies.

        • “As world leaders convene at the One Planet Summit on the second anniversary of the Paris Climate Agreement, environmental advocates are cautiously celebrating the ‘historic announcement’ by the World Bank that it will stop funding oil and gas exploration and production projects after 2019. . . .

Right: “Gaia,” Rev. Dr. Angela Yarber www.holywomenicons.com

        • “Alongside the World Bank's announcement, the French company Axa—one of the world's largest insurers—announced Tuesday that it plans to dump investments and stop providing insurance to U.S. oil pipelines as well as quadruple its investments in environmentally-friendly projects by 2020.” —Jessica Corbett, CommonDreams

        • “Warning that climate change amounts to the mother of all risks,’ three of the world's biggest insurance companies are demanding that G20 countries stop bankrolling the fossil fuels industry.” —Lauren McCauley, CommonDreams

        • “The Norwegian central bank, which runs the country’s sovereign wealth fund – the world’s biggest – has told its government it should dump its shares in oil and gas companies, in a move that could have significant consequences for the sector.” —Adam Vaughan, The Guardian

¶ “Solar power is now the cheapest form of energy in 58 countries, including in China, India, and Brazil. Solar power is predicted to be the lowest-cost energy option in almost all parts of the world in less than a decade.” —Otta Scharmer, “Trump, Dark Money, and Shifting Consciousness”

¶ “Climate activists claimed ‘an undeniable victory’ after New York City and New York State officials called for city and state pension funds to halt investments in fossil fuels. ‘The dam has broken,’ said 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben. ‘It's a crucial sign of how fast the financial pendulum is swinging away from fossil fuels.’” —Andrea Germanos, CommonDreams

Hymn of intercession. “We bow down before your cross.” —The Orthodox Singers, “Basso Profondo”

¶ “A transition to 100% renewable energy by 2050—or even sooner—is not only possible, but would also cost less and create millions of new jobs, according to new research presented in Bonn, Germany on Thursday.” —Julia Conley, CommonDreams

Signs of things to come. “Kentucky coal company announces plans to build the state’s largest solar farm.” —Natasha Geiling, ThinkProgress

Important news you likely didn’t hear. “For the first time, Exxon shareholders [in their June 2017 meeting]—by an impressive 62% majority—voted for a resolution that requires the company to publish an annual report detailing the risks of climate policies and technological advances to its oil and gas holdings.” —Kelly Mitchell, CommonDreams

¶ “Dozens of our country’s cities have already united to implement measures that combat climate change, so the President’s decision to withdraw from the Paris agreement is not representative of our nation’s leaders and their communities,” said Columbia (SC) Mayor Steve Benjamin, Second Vice President of the US Conference of Mayors which represents 1,408 cities with populations of 30,000 residents or more. —Mark Karlin, buzzflash

The General Electric Energy Financial Services “announced late [in June 2017] its cumulative investments in renewable power sources such as wind, solar and hydroelectric had surpassed $15 billion. Representing its fastest-growing business segment, the scope of investment shows the increasing economic viability of fossil fuel alternatives.” —Paul Schott, Stamford Advocate

¶ “According to a new study from the liberal group Media Matters for America, the Sunday political shows and nightly newscasts on ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox’s broadcast network devoted a total of 260 minutes to climate change in 2017. That’s a huge increase over 2016 and by far the most climate coverage since the group started tracking that data in 2009.” —Rebecca Leber, Mother Jones

There “are already more American jobs in the solar industry than in coal mining." —US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. The fact-checking agency Politifact considers this as “true.”

Words of assurance. “You who endure contentious tongues, threatened by gangsters and banksters of every sort, / Come to the Sheltering Presence of the One who knows, / The One who tapes your photo to Heaven’s refrigerator door.” —continue reading “By Thy might,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 31

Hymn of resolution. “Then why, O blessèd Jesus Christ / Should I not love Thee well? / Not for the hope of winning Heaven, / Nor of escaping hell. / Not with the hope of gaining aught, / Nor seeking a reward, / But as Thyself hast lovèd me, / O everlasting Lord!” —Darrell Adams, “My God, I Love Thee,” words attributed to Fancis Xavier

¶ “Directly contradicting much of the Trump administration’s position on climate change, 13 federal agencies unveiled an exhaustive scientific report on Friday that says humans are the dominant cause of the global temperature rise that has created the warmest period in the history of civilization.” —Lisa Friedman & Glenn Thrush, New York Times

Preach it (World Water Day is 22 March). “End-game ecological trends press Christians to re-read our tradition from the perspective of the groaning creation, as did Paul in Romans 8:21–22—including and especially our theology and practices of mission. Water is a strategic place to start. It is the resource we North Americans arguably most take for granted—a privileged and unsustainable conceit that must change.” —read more of Ched Myers’ “Reinhabiting the River of Life (Rev 22:1–2): Rehydration, Redemption, and Watershed Discipleship”

Can’t makes this sh*t up. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (which coordinates response to natural disasters) recently issued a new “strategic plan” for the coming four years, failed to mention climate change, global warming, sea-level rise, extreme weather, or any other terminology associated with scientific predictions of rising temperatures and their effects. —see Jessica Corbett, CommonDreams

Left: Hugh Thompson (at left) greeted by a Vietnamese women whose life he saved when he intervened to stop the US massacre of civilians in My Lai, 16 March 1968, on Thompson's trip back to My Lai in 1998.

Call to the table (on the 50th anniversary of the My Lai massacre). “Thompson could’ve stayed hovering above it all. Instead he entered the suffering. The story at this table is remembering that Jesus could’ve stayed hovering above the suffering. He entered it. At this table he invites us to do the same.” —Continue reading Nancy Hastings Sehested’s “Call to the Table” remembering Hugh Thompson an Army helicopter pilot during the Vietnam war who intervened to stop the My Lai massacre

The state of our disunion. President Trump has been a big booster of coal mining. Ironically, his Administration’s regulatory actions have actually led to a spike in coal miner deaths, given that safety inspectors no longer have the authority to issue a violation charge against coal companies. —for more info see “Coal mine deaths surge, putting feds and miners at odds,” CBS News

Altar call. “Sometimes you never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.” —Dr. Seuss

For the beauty of the earth. For the first time in 30 years, the International Cloud Atlas, first published in 1896, has added 12 new cloud types, including “Asperitas" cloud, pictured at right. (Thanks James.) —Tim De Chant, Nova Next

Benediction. “Proclaim with confidence the Beloved’s promise to those who live in the ashes: Thus says the Host of Heaven: 'I will restore to you the years which the locusts have eaten.'” —Joel 2:25

Recessional. “We are of the Spirit, truly of the Spirit / only can the Spirit turn the world around.” —"Turn the World Around," by Harry Belafonte, performed by Berklee College of Music students and faculty

Lectionary for this Sunday. “From the depths of distress, every sail sagged and limp, / my mutinous lips offer insurrecting sighs. / With heart-aching hope doth my voice still rejoice.  / Incline us, consign us, to steadfast Embrace.” —continue reading “Mutinous lips,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 118

Lectionary for Sunday next. “Choral reading of John 20:1-18,” a script for 8 voices.

Marking Romero’s martyrdom. This is what true saints do: inspiring saintliness to those around them rather than clutching the status for themselves. (See the illustration at left.) Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero, who was gunned down by a right-wing death squad while saying Mass on 24 March 1980, one day after his radio broadcast sermon calling for soldiers to lay down their guns and end the repressive government’s rule. will be canonized as a Roman Catholic saint. The Plough Publishing House published The Violence of Love, a marvelous collection of Romero quotes. They also offer a free ebook download and audio book.

Just for fun. Just when you’re ready for a challenging adventure—dressed for the occasion, courage collected, risk factor calculated, equipment in hand, your eyes on the prize, adrenaline flowing, bystanders ready to capture the moment on film, narrative outline of the experience later to be recorded in your journal already formed in your mind—this happens. (0:07 video. Thanks Brynn!)

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Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “Resurrection’s approach,” a poem for Holy Week

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

• “Pulling back the veil: The call to penitential living (in light of the 50th anniversary of the My Lai massacre),” a sermon

• “Call to the table (on the 50th anniversary of the My Lai massacre),” a communion meditation by Nancy Hastings Sehested
 
Other features

• “Choral reading of John 20:1-18,” a script for 8 voices

• “Why good news is harder to find than bad news,” a brief essay

©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  •  13 March 2018 •  No. 155

Processional. “All my life I've been waiting for / I've been praying for / For the people to say / That we don't wanna fight no more / They'll be no more wars / And our children will play / One day.” —Koolulam leading 3000 people in Haifa singing “One Day” (Thanks Marnie.)

Above: “As the Trump administration eyes the border wall, so does an elusive French street artist. Building a massive dining table across both sides of the US-Mexico border in the small Mexican town of Tecate, artist JR painted ‘the eyes of the dreamer’ on top of the bench. In a special one-day-only setup, one eye is meticulously placed on either side of the border.” —for more see Khushbu Shah, CNN

Invocation. “Psalm 51 – Schaffe in Mir Gott (“Create in Me”),” Johannes Brahms, performed by California State Fullerton University Singers.

Call to worship. “Create in me a clean heart, O God. / In the measure of your abundant mercy, clear the debris from my life. / My failures are before me; they mock and taunt me. / Even my bones feel the weight of disappointment. / Mercy, mercy, have mercy on me.” —continue reading “Create in me a clean heart,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 51

Rev. Micah Bucey (pictured at right) is associate minister of Judson Memorial Church in New York City, a congregation with a decades-long history of advocacy on behalf of immigrants and a member of New York City’s interfaith New Sanctuary Coalition. For more background see this site.   Recently, the matter got personal when one of Judson’s own, Jean Montrevil, a Haitian immigrant and vigorous advocate for other immigrants, was arrested, imprisoned in Miami, and then deported. Judson's senior minister, Rev. Donna Schaper, was a co-founder of the New Sanctuary Coalition. —for more see Connie Larkman, UCC News

Hymn of praise. “Lord of the Dance,” Heath Mount School Choir. Sydney Bertram Carter, an English poet and folk singer wrote the song’s lyrics and adapted the Shaker song, “Simple Gifts,” to create “Lord of the Dance.”

Confession. “Happy are those who walk in the Way of Beauty, harnessed in the Bridle of Mercy and according to the Weal of Justice. / From Creation’s Promise to Redemption’s Assurance, may Your Faithful Word leap from our lips and exclaim with our limbs. / In this Law I delight! May it rule soul and soil and society alike.” —continue reading “In this law I delight,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 119

Net neutrality. “The term was coined by Columbia University media law professor Tim Wu in 2003, as an extension of the longstanding concept of a common carrier, which was used to describe the role of telephone systems.” The principal is amazing simple: That all internet data should be treated equally.

        “Net neutrality” doesn’t lend itself to a rallying cry, a protest poem, or a dissenter’s street graffiti. So why does it (occasionally) make headlines? In short: It’s one more way large corporations seek to corral a public asset, now available under approximately equitable terms and without regard to financial clout, and turn it into a cash cow for wealthy investors.

        Last December the Federal Communications Commission voted to abolish previous net neutrality policies governing the internet, which will allow the communications giants like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T to construct platforms giving a “fast lane” to those who can afford higher premiums, bumping others into cyberspace traffic jams. What follows is a short list of resources to understand what’s at stake.

¶ “The FCC just voted to repeal its net neutrality rules, in a sweeping act of deregulation.” —Brian Fung, Washington Post

¶ Here are two brief videos on net neutrality.

        • “Why we must protect net neutrality,” Robert Reich. (3:08 minute video)

        • A PBS video (1:22) on what’s at stake with net neutrality. (Thanks Rhonda.)

¶ Here’s an introduction to the topic of “net neutrality” by Anna Baltzer, especially in the context of Israeli-Palestinian relations. (11:41 video. Thanks Joe.)

¶ “Adding to the growing backlash among the public and members of Congress against the FCC's party-line vote on Thursday to repeal net neutrality protections, nearly 20 state attorneys general have lined up to sue the FCC, calling the Republican-controlled agency's move a violation of the law and a serious "threat to the free exchange of ideas." —Jake Johnson, CommonDreams

Breaking news. The mayors of 11 cities have taken a vow to refuse to do business with internet service providers that don’t support net neutrality. The “Cities Open Internet Pledge”  was announced on Sunday at the South by Southwest conference in Texas. —Jake Johnson, CommonDreams

Hymn of supplication. “We rest on Thee, our shield and our defender! We go not forth alone against the foe. / Strong in Thy strength, safe in Thy keeping tender / We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go.” —Mennonite Hour Singers

Those crazy Canadians are at it again. “Nearly 800 Quebec Doctors Demand Their Pay Raises Go To Nurses, Improving Healthcare Overall.” —Julia Conley, CommonDreams

Words of assurance. “Is there no song to be sung, no bell to be rung, no laughter from the fields at play with their yield? Would that my mouth be formed and my lips unleashed to speak a word, a true and hearty word, to all grown deaf with grief. Make our tongues worthy—make them constant and true—to sustain the weary with a word.” —continue reading “Sustain the weary with a word,” a litany for worship inspired by 50:4-9a

Professing our faith. “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” —continue reading “Heart Religion,” a litany for worship using texts from Ezekiel, the Psalms, Matthew, and Acts

In preparation for St. Patrick’s Day.

        • “St. Patrick wasn’t Irish, didn’t expel snakes from Ireland, has no ‘miracle’ attributed to him (which now is required for sainthood), and didn’t write the poem ‘St. Patrick’s Breastplate’ (which was likely penned 3-4 centuries after Patrick died in the late 5th century). Ironically, though, his fame was sufficiently established in his lifetime that his followers waged a war for custody of his body. Relatively little is known for certain about his life, but this much is documented: He was likely the first early church leaders to speak out against the abuse of women.” —see more in "St. Patrick and his Day: Connecting the saint to his Irish context, especially the 19th century 'Great Famine'"

        • “Who was St. Patrick?,” a brief (1:09 video) biographical sketch.

        • See Susan B. Barnes’ “17 St. Patrick's Day celebrations for March 17 and beyond”  for a summary of St. Patrick’s Day events around the US.

Hymn of intercession. “Weeping Eyes,” Amir Bar-David & Revital Khalfon

Preach it. This is what we hope Lenten practices will do: Create "a creeping discomfort about my confidence in the way I've always viewed the world." —quote by Rick Steves, popular travel reporter, in the third edition of his book, “Travel As a Political Act: How to Leave Your Baggage Behind.” For a review, see Genevieve Valentine, NPR (Thanks Ashlee.)

Can’t makes this sh*t up. In federal law, when hunting migratory birds the number of rounds of ammunition in your shotgun is limited by law to 3. But you can get 100-round magazines for your AR-15.

¶ This Friday, 26 March, is the 50th anniversary of the massacre in My Lai, Vietnam. “We privilege confession and absolution in our liturgy not because God enjoys our humiliation. Just the opposite. By the grace of God, confession frees us from the power of our failures. Confession provides the possibility to begin again. The wreckage wrought by human behavior is real; but the future is not thereby fated.

        What does attention to penitential life have to do with the 50th anniversary of the My Lai massacre? Everything—if we’re looking for root causes and not merely explanations.” —continue reading “The ties that bind: The Integrity of Penitence, on the 50th Anniversary of the Massacre at My Lai"

If you’re within traveling distance, there will be a public vigil this Friday, 12 noon–1:00 pm, in Lafayette Park (across from the White House in Washington, DC), commemorating the 50th anniversary of the My Lai massacre. For more information on this and other activities, see the Vietnam Peace Commemoration Committee site.  A , including liturgical material and historical background, is also available.

Call to the table. “No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, / ‘Know the Lord,’ / for they shall all know me, / from the least of them to the greatest, / says the Lord; / I will forgive their iniquity / and remember their sin no more.” —continue reading “I will put my law within them: A choral reading of Jeremiah 31:31-34"

The state of our disunion. On Saturday, 3 March, President Trump reached a milestone: his 100th day at one of his golf resorts. That comes to nearly one out of every four of his days in office. The Washington Post estimates Trump's flight costs alone cost $514,000 per hour. Tab for golf carts rented for his Secret Service security detail? $103,000. The city of Palm Beach, Florida, site of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago luxury resort, spends $60,000 per day on extra security while the President is there. —for more see CheatSheet

Best one-liner. “The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” —Rosa Parks, whose refusal to relinquish her bus seat to a white passenger prompted the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955, effectively launching the modern Civil Rights Movement

For the beauty of the earth. The BBC series “Planet Earth: Blue Planet II” is among the most amazing things I’ve ever seen on TV, accompanied by David Attenborough’s majestic narration. “How in the world did they get that shot?!” I repeatedly said aloud. For a little background, watch this brief (1:00) video of how the filming was done. If you have access to PBS, watch your local listings for the show’s offerings. (Thanks Joshua & David.)

Altar call. “As a young adult, however, I began to sense that the text had little meaning in face of the context. What does the heart have to do with the array of power relations in the world? What does giving your heart to Jesus have to do with realities of war, of continuing racial disparity and economic injustice?” —continue reading “Religion of the heart,” a sermon inspired by Jeremiah 31:31-34

Benediction. “I see Christ as the incarnation of the piper who is calling us. He dances that shape and pattern which is at the heart of our reality.” —Sydney Carter, author of “Lord of the Dance”

Recessional. “I arise today / Through God’s strength to pilot me / God’s eye to look before me / God’s wisdom to guide me / God’s way to lie before me / God’s shield to protect me / From all who shall wish me ill / Afar and anear / Alone and in a multitude / Against every cruel / Merciless power / That may oppose my body and soul.” —“The Deer’s Cry,” (aka “St. Patrick’s Breastplate”), Rita Connolly, with the Curtlestown Choir

Lectionary for this Sunday. “Create in me a clean heart, O God. / In the measure of your abundant mercy, clear the debris from my life. / My failures are before me; they mock and taunt me. / Even my bones feel the weight of disappointment. / Mercy, mercy, have mercy on me.” —continue reading “Create in me a clean heart,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 51

Lectionary for Sunday next. “From the depths of distress, every sail sagged and limp, / my mutinous lips offer insurrecting sighs. / With heart-aching hope doth my voice still rejoice.  / Incline us, consign us, to steadfast Embrace.” —continue reading “Mutinous lips,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 118

Just for fun. Snow shovelers’ dance. (10 second video. Thanks Shawn.)

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Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• "Resurrection's approach," a poem for Holy Week

• “Create in me a clean heart,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 51

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

• “Religion of the heart,” a sermon inspired by Jeremiah 31:31-34

• “I will put my law within them: A choral reading of Jeremiah 31:31-34"

• “In this law I delight,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 119

Other features

• “The ties that bind: The Integrity of Penitence, on the 50th Anniversary of the Massacre at My Lai,” an essay

• “Plastic Jesus,” a Lenten meditation on plastic,” an essay

©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.