Signs of the Times • 10 August 2017 • No. 131

Above: Garden of Morning Calm, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea

Invocation.
Don't the hours grow shorter as the days go by
We never get to stop and open our eyes
One minute you're waiting for the sky to fall
The next you're dazzled by the beauty of it all
—Bruce Cockburn, "Lovers in Dangerous Times”

Potpourri edition
(Commentary in small bytes)

Lovers in dangerous times

Korean conflict and the meaning of might

These are surely dangerous times, the smell of fear swirling, with prickly gun-slinging leaders playing with matches in pools of jet fuel and trading tinny, boisterous threats, the fate of the long-colonized Korean Peninsula hanging in the balance. Even without nuclear weapons, the estimated toll from a war begins with hundreds of thousands casualties, on up into multiple millions.

        In the same week, a government funded scientific study was leaked to the press for fear that the Trump Administration would quash its findings. The report, concluding that “evidence for a changing climate abounds, from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the oceans,” assigns human activity as the cause of most of the damage.

        Trump's menacing "fire and fury" rant on North Korea came amid a meeting with health officials and cabinet to discuss the opiod crisis—the average daily death toll is now 142—President Trump refused to endorse his own Commission on Addition and the Opiod Crisis’ recommendation for designating a national emergency, saying the border wall with Mexico and drug treatment programs would do for now. In actual fact, Congressional Republicans and Trump’s own proposed budget call for reducing existing drug treatment options.

§  §  §

In the meantime, President Trump has refused to comment on the terrorist bombing of a mosque in a Minneapolis suburb. And now, this coming Saturday, what may prove to be the largest ever alt-right rally (“Unite the Right”), is scheduled for Charlottesville, Va. In fact, Airbnb has canceled bookings linked to the rally.

§  §  §

Lurking, largely unmentioned, in the background of all these headlines is the fact that an estimated 20 million people are facing starvation in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Nigeria. In a recent interview with Vox, Michael Bowers, vice president of humanitarian leadership and response for the aid group Mercy Corps, said the current famine was “entirely avoidable.”

        “It’s entirely a man-made construct, and that means we have it within our power to stop that,” he said. “Wars are hard to stop; famines are not.” —Jane Jerguson, Vox

 §  §  §

“We just annihilated them.” —US Korean War veteran. In July 1950, early in the Korean War, somewhere between 250-300 South Korean refugees fleeing the fighting were massacred near the village of Nogeun-ri, southeast of Seoul, by the US 7th Cavalry Regiment. It wasn’t until 1999 that a thorough investigation of the incident was issued by the Associated Press (whose authors won a Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for the story).

        After decades of denying responsibility, in 2001 the Army finally acknowledged that “an unknown number” of refugees had been killed, but denied that orders to kill refugees had been issued. The report did not disclose that the 7th Cavalry log for July 1950, which would have held such orders, was missing from the National Archives.

        In a response to reporters, President Bill Clinton commented that “things happened which were wrong.”

        In 2005, South Korea’s National Assembly created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of the Republic of Korea to investigate these allegations, as well as other human rights violations in southern Korea during the 20th century. In its 2008 report, the Commission named more than 200 cases of what it described as "civilian massacre committed by U.S. soldiers.” —for more, see “No Gun Ri massacre,” Wikipedia

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In the late 19th century, Japan joined the Western European move to establish “protectorates” in Asia, the former establishing control of the Korean Peninsula. After World War II, the Soviet Union and the US split control of the country along the 38th parallel. In 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea, launching the Korean War.” —David W. Brown, “10 Facts About the Korean War,” Mental Floss

        The US “Special Forces” and the National Security Agency trace their origins to the Korean War.

        Plans to the use of the atomic bomb on China and the Soviet Union were drafted, but not implemented, in the event of one or the other’s intervention in the Korean War.

Right: Roughly 5,000 Korean and U.S. soldiers and American Christian broadcasting personnel gathered in August 2016 at the Yeonmudae Military Church in South Chungcheong Province on Saturday to take part in the country’s largest-ever baptism ceremony. Along with the thousands of local soldiers, 40 local ministers, 22 American ministers and U.S. military chaplains participated. The event was also a way of thanking the U.S. military personnel for their past sacrifices in the once war-torn country. —The Korea Herald

        “On July 27, 1953, American Lieutenant General William Harrison, Jr. and North Korean General Nam Il signed the Korean Armistice Agreement, ending “all acts of armed force” in Korea, until both sides were able to find a “final peaceful settlement.” The agreement was notably not a peace treaty, but rather, a ceasefire. [In other words, the Korean War is not over.] Over 60 years later, it seems we are no closer to a peaceful ending of the conflict.” —David W. Brown, “10 Facts About the Korean War,” Mental Floss

§  §  §

Among the reasons North Korea is considered a “rogue” nation is based in international law concerning the country’s nuclear weapons program. We forget that this same international legal framework requires the US (and other nuclear powers) to take concrete steps toward eliminating nuclear weapons.

        President Trump has vowed to carry through on the Obama Administration’s planned upgrade of US nuclear weapons, estimated to cost $1,000,000,000,000 over the next three decades.

§  §  §

“Siegfried Hecker, the last known American official to inspect North Korea's nuclear facilities, said prior to Trump's statement that treating Kim Jong-un as though he is on the verge of attacking the U.S. is both inaccurate and dangerous. ‘Some like to depict Kim as being crazy—a madman—and that makes the public believe that the guy is undeterrable,’ said Hecker. ‘He's not crazy and he's not suicidal. And he's not even unpredictable. The real threat is we’re going to stumble into a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula.’" —Julia Conley, CommonDreams

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These fragile bodies of touch and taste
This fragrant skin, this hair like lace
Spirits open to the thrust of grace
Never a breath you can afford to waste
—Bruce Cockburn, “Lovers in Dangerous Times”

§  §  §

Just as surely, you may ask, must we rehearse in a single setting all the disheartening stories above? (The list is certainly much longer.) Can the result be more than a dissing of the heart?

        Only if what passes for hope is little more than lullaby.

        The kind of hope in which people of faith are to be formed is one that refuses a censoring of history’s trauma. At the same time, though, this formation orients the ear to hearing other stories—stories that counter the soap-selling sensationalism that masquerades as news.

        Here’s one from this week.

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In February Cédric Herrou, a French farmer, was convicted and given a suspended €3,000 fine. His crime? Assisting refugees crossing the border from Italy into France in the Breil-sur-Roya region where Herrou cultivates his olive trees.

Right: French farmer Cédric Herrou, convicted of helping refugees crossing the border from Italy into France, in the makeshift migrant camp on his property.  Photo by Eric Gaillard/Reuters

        This week the French court gave him a four-month suspended prison sentence.

        Herrou’s legal argument was that he has simply been upholding France’s “good Samaritan” law which legally requires a person to come to the aid of those in danger. Several European and Latin American countries have such laws, as do ten states in the US.

        "It is the role of a citizen in a democracy to take action when the state fails to,” said Herrou following the verdict. —for more, read or listen (4:40 audio) to this story by PRI’s Marco Werman

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“When you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden and you would hold back from setting it free, you must help to set it free.“ —Exodus 23:5

§  §  §

“Courage is not the absence of fear; Aristotle believed it was the virtue which trains us to fear in the right way, in the right amount, and about the right things.” —Kyle Childress

§  §  §

 “They will be met with fire and fury—and, frankly, power—like the world has never seen.” —President Donald Trump

        In his second iteration of his “fire and fury” threat against North Korea, Trump added “and, frankly, power.”

        In response to such claims, people of faith respond with baptism.

        Every issue is an issue of baptism, according to William Stringfellow, because baptism is a question of power; and every question of power is a question about God.

        “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord” (Zechariah 4:6).

        The claims of competing prowess are present in every baptism: In a treacherous world, whose promises are sturdier? In Babel’s wake, whose words are trustworthy? In a world brimming with belligerents, where significant commitments presume an outcome which cannot be verified ahead of time, whose covenant will endure?

        We are all, every one of us, believers of some sort when it comes to wielding power and might. Jesus repeatedly warned that his Way would be considered politically inept—even reckless—by the “the world.”

        Tribulation is the natural home of the church (e.g., John 16:33)—which is why, in large measure, the church in the West has contracted a form of spiritual emphysema. To regain our breath will require release—a kind of disablement, threatening as it seems—in order to be rightly abled to hear and see and sense the Spirit’s movement in the shadows, away from centers of privilege, at the edges of entitlement.

§  §  §

        As my long-time friend Paul Hayes recently noted, water-boarding has become the secular counterpart to baptism. Terrorism—whether sponsored by state or non-state actors—is anti-baptism.

        Baptism’s claim is staked on the Resurrection. This is the source of power with which the world does not reckon. With confidence in God’s power over the realm of death, believers can risk much. This is the secret of our freedom and our joy.

        But also the source of our risk, since nothing frightens imperial agents more than free, fearless people.

§  §  §

 “In the face of death, live humanly. In the middle of chaos, celebrate the Word. Amidst babel, speak the truth. Confront the noise and verbiage and falsehood of death with the truth and potency and efficacy of the Word of God. Know the Word, teach the Word, preach the Word, defend the Word, incarnate the Word, do the Word, live the Word. And more than that, in the Word of God, expose death and all death's works and wiles, rebuke lies, cast out demons, exorcise, cleanse the possessed, raise those who are dead in mind and conscience.” —William Stringfellow

§  §  §

This past weekend my wife and I preached and taught about baptism at Noank Baptist Church in Noank, Connecticut. At the end of the Sunday morning service, the congregation processed downhill for a baptism at the mouth of the Mystic River. At left, Rev. Paul Hayes, pastor of Noank Baptist Church, leading four baptismal candidates—three young people and one senior adult—into the water.

§  §  §

Benediction.
When you're lovers in a dangerous time
Sometimes you're made to feel as if your love's a crime
Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight
Got to kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight
—Bruce Cockburn, “Lovers in Dangerous Times”

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©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.

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.

 

Signs of the Times • 1 August 2017 • No. 130

¶ Invocation. Listen to my 3-year-old grandson recite e.e. cumming’s poem “I thank you God for this most amazing day.” (Special thanks to Marc Mullinax for technical expertise.)

Above: This beautiful “Nature Mandala” collage was created in June by children, and their teacher, Monica Hix, at a “Worship in the Arts” camp at First Baptist Church, Greensboro, NC.

Potpourri edition
(commentary in small bytes)

NORMALIZING CRUELTY

There are at least four ways to normalize cruelty, to make it appear routine, inconspicuous, unnoteworthy.

            One is to make it a statistic. It was the Soviet butcher Joseph Stalin who said, “The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.” So, talking about 15 or 20 or 30 million people without health care, as the various Republican plans have stipulated, isn’t a stretch when there are no faces or names.

            Eh, a million here, a million there. . . .

            A second way to normalize cruelty: Use the word “freedom.” (And if you can stuff it in, insert “religious” as an adjective.) That’s what Vice President Mike Pence did in an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Asked if repealing the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) would be “worth it” if the outcome led to “millions fewer Americans” having health insurance, Pence responded by saying “the very essence of living in a free society is people get to make their own decisions. . . .” —for more see Oliver Willis, Shareblue

            A third way to normalize cruelty: Call it colorful language. That’s what short-term White House communications director Steve Scaramucci did in his non-apology after being called out for using a squalid stream of profanities to describe West Wing colleagues, plus promising to “f***ing kill all leakers.” Tacitly, by his silence, Trump had no qualms with such behavior.

            A fourth way to normalize cruelty: Say it’s a joke. Just kidding. That’s the response from the White House after Trump did one of his famous wink-wink saying-something-without-actually-saying-it comments, this time, in a speech to law enforcement, an endorsement of police brutality. His suggestion was so bald that police chiefs across the country publicly disassociated themselves and their officers from the president. (For the White House press secretary to say it was all in good fun is actually worse.) —for more see Ray Sanchez, “Police push back against Trump’s law-and-order speech,” CNN

§  §  §

Senate vote drama, 1:30 a.m. Friday morning, 28 July. CNN called it “John McCain’s maverick moment,” then the Washington Post headlined, “The night John McCain killed the GOP’s health-care fight.”

        Yes . . . but no.

        It’s true, Senator McCain’s vote was as dramatic as it was surprising, having flown back from Arizona to DC less than two weeks after surgery to partially remove a cancerous tumor above his eye, to deliver a surprising (and deciding) “no” vote on the latest Republican health care bill.

Left: Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. Lisa Murkowski

        There’s something about staring mortality in the face that enables the choice for truth over politically-expeditious deceit. The believing community is called to ritually enact such choices in every baptism and memorialize in every Eucharistic observance.

        Renewed confidence that death is not the end is faith’s gambit (and the only reliable source of freedom) while surrounded on every side by the vanity of lies that rationalize cruelty and despotism.

Word. "Madness in great ones must not unwatched go."
—Roman Emperor Claudius, first century CE (Thanks Don.)

§  §  §

However, the efficacy of McCain’s vote was utterly dependent on fellow Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski (AK) and Susan Collins (ME). These two women resisted the moral catastrophe of their colleagues’ attempts to gut health care throughout each of the bill’s three different versions.

        We know, at least in Murkowski’s case, that the Trump Administration explicitly threatened to withhold federal funds for previously approved projects for her Alaskan constituents unless she voted the party line. —for more see Alexia Fernández Campbell, Vox

Right: Delicious irony.

§  §  §

This episode, played out after midnight last week on the Senate floor, illustrates the range of options people of faith may be called upon to practice. It is misguided to argue over which is more important: McCain’s dramatic stand or Murkowski’s and Collins’ endurance. Though it is certainly true that women’s contributions to the commonwealth have long been ignored or discounted.

        I agree with those who say that, in Scripture, the most celebrated virtue is faithful persistence, practiced mostly out of the limelight, no TV cameras or book publishers waiting to tell your story, in out-of-the-way places, by those who scramble when kids are sick and can’t go to school, who regularly squeeze pennies out of paychecks, and contend with getting food on the table and laundry out of the wash.

        Everyone wants to change the world; fewer are willing to do the dishes.

§  §  §

“I have come to believe that the true mystics are not those who contemplate holiness in isolation, reaching godlike illumination in serene silence, but those who manage to find God in a life filled with noise, the demands of other people and relentless daily duties that can consume the self. . . . If they are wise, they treasure the rare moments of solitude and silence that come their way, and use them not to escape, to distract themselves with television and the like. Instead, they listen for a sign of God’s presence and they open their hearts toward prayer.” —Kathleen Norris, The Quotidian Mysteries

Left. President Lyndon B. Johnson signing Medicare and Medicaid into law.

§  §  §

On 30 July 1965, “President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law, extending health care to millions of seniors and the poor.

        “The idea had been in the works for decades but previous attempts had been unsuccessful. Industry groups were fierce in their opposition and conservatives denounced any plan as ‘socialized medicine.’

        “Johnson persevered. At the time, nearly half of America's seniors didn't have access to health insurance and a third lived in poverty. Today, all seniors have access to affordable health care and the poverty rate has fallen to 9%. The Congressional Budget Office has found that Medicare and Medicaid are more efficient than private insurance. Yet Republicans today seem just as determined to undermine these essential programs as they were before 1965. The fight is far from over.” —Robert Reich on Facebook

§  §  §

On a hopeful note, Trumphoolery is actually inspiring some of its antidote. “Much has been said about White House dysfunction and how little President Trump has accomplished in his first six months. But that’s not the whole story: In Washington and around the world, in some surprising ways, things are happening—but they are precisely the opposite of what Trump wanted and predicted when he was sworn in.” —for details see Fred Hiatt, "Behold, the Trump boomerang effect," Washington Post (Thanks Larry.)

§  §  §

¶ Benediction. “There will be no love that's dying here / The bird that flew in through my window / Simply lost his way / He broke his wing, I helped him heal / And then he flew away / Well the death of love is everywhere / But I won't let it be / There will be no love that's dying here for me.” —Gregory Proter, “No Love Dying” (Thanks Al.)

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©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.

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

Signs of the Times  •  25 July 2017  •  No. 129

Art ©John August Swanson http://www.johnaugustswanson.com/

¶ Processional. Traditional Samoan Medley performed by Choloration, a combined choir of Westlake Girls and Westlake Boys High School in New Zealand.

Above: Elephants create an impenetrable barrier protecting the mother as she gives birth to a calf in the Amboseli National Park in Kenya. This rare photo—it’s impossible to know exactly when an elephant will give birth—show a formation taken in only two cases: when they are under attack by predators or during birth. —For more photos and this fascinating story, see Daniel Miller, “Try getting past this lot! Elephants huddle round female to protect her from prowling hyenas while she gives birth,” The Daily Mail

¶ Invocation. “Do You Call That Religion,” The Norfolk Jubilee Quartet.

¶ We want the kind of health care which Donald Trump repeatedly promised in his campaign speeches: Better coverage, for more people, at lower cost.

¶ Call to worship. “Dare to declare who you are. It is not far from the shores of silence to the boundaries of speech. The path is not long, but the way is deep. You must not only walk there, you must be prepared to leap.” —Hildegard of Bingen

¶ Good news. In India 66 million trees were planted in just 12 hours (see photo at right), utilizing 1.5 million volunteers. The country has pledged to reforest 12% of their land by 2030 at a cost of $6.2 billion. This is part of India’s commitment to the Paris climate agreement. —AJ+ (1:26 video. Thanks Harriet.)

¶ Hymn of praise. “He is powerless, Hallelujah / Satan is powerless / He’s disappointed, Hallelujah / Satan is disappointed / He’s fleeing, Hallelujah / Satan is Fleeing” (English translation). —“Akanamandla” (He’s Powerless), South African freedom song, performed by Waldorf Students Choir, Quire, Colchester

¶ I don’t know if the irony could be more bitter: Sen. John McCain, just out of surgery for brain cancer, gets clearance from his government-insurance-paid doctor to fly back to Washington to cast the deciding vote for the Republicans to resume their as-yet-secret health care legislation that will likely remove tens of millions from insurance roles, decimate Medicaid (which covers the poorest of the poor), and shuttle those with preexisting conditions into a high-risk-astronomically-expensive pool.
        Sen. McCain did, however, make an impassioned plea for a bipartisan approach to health care. —kls (1:44 video)

¶ Highly recommended podcast. Jill Lepore, Harvard historian, summarizes a century of presidential attempts to get Congress to approve universal health care coverage in the US and what it will take to make this happen. —New Yorker Radio Hour (15:30 audio)

¶ Confession. “Despite having the most expensive health care system, the United States ranks last overall among 11 industrialized countries on measures of health system quality, efficiency, access to care, equity, and healthy lives.” —Commonwealth Fund

¶ Primum non nocere. “In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the American Medical Association's CEO James Madara wrote, ‘Medicine has long operated under the precept of Primum non nocere, or ‘first, do no harm.’ The draft legislation violates that standard on many levels.’” —Dylan Stafford, CNN

¶ Hymn of lamentation. “O God of earth and altar, / bow down and hear our cry, / our earthly rulers falter, / our people drift and die; / the walls of gold entomb us, / the swords of scorn divide, / take not thy thunder from us, / but take away our pride.” —Iron Maiden “O God of Earth and Altar” (click “show more” to see all the lyrics)

¶ “You say you’re pro-life, but then you want to limit health care for my disabled son.” —Preston Yancey, Washington Post

¶ “Healthcare in America is more expensive than in any other rich country. . . . Compared to 35 other countries [in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development], Americans have spent more on their health every year since 2000. . . . Total health spending last year, including private out-of-pocket and government spending, was $8,985 per person in the US while the OECD average was just $3,633. And yet all that health spending hasn’t resulted in better health. The life expectancy of the average American is 78.8 years, putting the US a fraction ahead of the Czech Republic, where out of pocket spending was just $236 last year.” —Mona Chalabi, The Guardian

¶ “Health insurance industry rakes in billions while blaming Obamacare for losses. Major insurance companies are enjoying record profits but claim they are losing money under the Affordable Care Act.” —Amy Martyn, Consumer Affairs

¶ Words of assurance. “Glory, Glory Hallelujah” (Since I Laid My Burden Down), The Staples Singers.

¶ “The median household income in 2015 was $56,515, which the average healthcare CEO made in less than a day. . . . Since the Affordable Care Act  passed in 2010, the ‘CEOs of 70 of the largest U.S. healthcare companies cumulatively have earned $9.8 billion,’ according to a report by Axios's Bob Herman.” Not only is the Affordable Care Act not collapsing, as Trump says, but ‘Stock prices have boomed, and CEOs took home nearly 11% more money on average every year since 2010.’” —Jake Johnson, CommonDreams

¶ In case you missed this. Late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel tells a moving first-person story about one element of health care the insurance companies want to limit (by making it unaffordable for most). —Washington Post (2:02 video)

¶ McKesson is the largest drug distributor in the US, and the fifth largest corporation. The role of such companies in the opiod epidemic is now coming under scrutiny. Take West Virginia, for example, with the nation’s highest rate of opiod-related deaths. In the small town of Kermit, population 392, drug companies shipped over a two-year period nearly 9 million highly addictive hydrocodone pills to a single pharmacy. “In six years, drug wholesalers showered the state with 780 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills, while 1,728 West Virginians fatally overdosed on those two painkillers.” —Eric Eyre, Charleston, (WV) Gazette-Mail

¶ “The state of Ohio has sued five major drug manufacturers for their role in the opioid epidemic. In the lawsuit filed Wednesday, state Attorney General Mike DeWine alleges these five companies ‘helped unleash a health care crisis that has had far-reaching financial, social, and deadly consequences in the State of Ohio.’

The lawsuit accuses the companies of engaging in a sustained marketing campaign to downplay the addiction risks of the prescription opioid drugs they sell and to exaggerate the benefits of their use for health problems such as chronic pain.” —Colin Dwyer, NPR

¶ “Hundreds of people nationwide, including dozens of doctors, have been charged in health care fraud prosecutions, accused of collectively defrauding the government of $1.3 billion, the Justice Department said on Thursday.
        “Nearly one-third of the 412 charged were accused of opioid-related crimes. The health care providers, about 50 of them doctors, billed Medicare and Medicaid for drugs that were never purchased; collected money for false rehabilitation treatments and tests; and gave out prescriptions for cash, according to prosecutors.” —Rebecca R. Ruiz, New York Times

¶ Hymn of intercession. “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,” Chant de la communauté de L'Emmanuel.

¶ “A 12-year study by the American Journal of Public Health documented the fact that “the odds of non-Hispanic white youth using cocaine were 30 times higher than African Americans. . . . Most notably, the findings of the study highlight the incongruity between drug use and incarceration rates along racial lines. According to estimated figures from the U.S. Department of Justice, of the males born in 2001, one in three African Americans and one in six Hispanics will be incarcerated at some point during their lifetimes. By contrast for Caucasians, that number is one in 17.” —Robin Schder, AlterNet

¶ When only the blues will do. “Blue and Lonesome,” Little Walter.

¶ President Trump’s statement about the Affordable Care Act “exploding” was not an idle threat. There are a number of things the administration can do to tweak the law’s regulations. And Wall Street is notorously fickle: if enough people shout “fire,” health care providers may continue to abandon the market-based plan. —see more at Amy Goldstein & Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post

¶ By the numbers. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that more than half—or $2.5 trillion over 10 years—of the Trump administration’s proposed fiscal year 2018 cuts will come from programs that help low- and moderate-income Americans. To cover that deficit, our nation’s 350,000 religious congregations would each have to raise $714,000 annually, every year for 10 years, to make up that amount. —or more information see Bread for the World

¶ Preach it. “If there is a major problem in spirituality today, it may be that we do not do enough to form Christians for resistance to evil. We form them for patient endurance and for civil conformity. We form them to be “good” but not necessarily to be “holy.” In the doing of it, we make compliant Christians rather than courageous ones, as if bearing evil were more important than confronting it. We go on separating life into parts, one spiritual, one not.” —Joan D. Chittister, OSB

¶ Can’t makes this sh*t up. Essayist David Sedaris recalls an incident from his flight from Hawaii to Portland, Oregon. “This woman said, you are so lucky to be seated up front, it’s a great spot for people-watching. And I said, hmm, it could be, but we don’t really count you as people.” He meant it as wry humor. —Alex Clar, The Guardian

¶ Call to the table. “Love Is Everything,” K.D. Lang.

¶ The state of our disunion. “The Trump health care and budget plans will be harsh on the poor, which we expected. But they’ll also be harsh on the working class, which we didn’t. We’re ending up with the worst of the new guard Trumpian populists and the old guard Republican libertarians. We’re building walls to close off the world while also shifting wealth from the poor to the rich.” —David Brooks, New York Times  

Left: Ricardo Levins Morales, ©RLM Art Studio

¶ For the beauty of the earth. A Japanese puffer fish worked 24 hours a day, for a week, to construct a stunning ocean floor piece of art to attract female attention. (2:59 video. Thanks Laura.)

¶ Altar call. “I was born to ignorance, yes, and lesser poverties / I was born to privilege that I did not see / Lack of pigment in my skin, won a free and easy in / I didn't know it, but my way was paved.” —John Gorka, “Ignorance and Privilege" (Thanks Peter.)

¶ Benediction. “Jesus promised his disciples three things—that they would be completely fearless, absurdly happy, and in constant trouble.” —G.K. Chesterton

¶ Recessional. “Djelem Djelem,” Žarko Jovanović, performed by Barcelona Gipsy Klezmer Orchestra. The song, in the Romani language, tells about the atrocities Roma people suffered in World War II and the rise of the Roma people to come. (Click the “show more” button for more background.)

¶ Lectionary for this Sunday. “The Love of Christ . .  / is the still, deep stream amid / Every tempest that knows / nothing, nothing, / can separate us from the / length and breadth / of Heaven’s reach.” —continue reading “The breadth of Heaven’s reach,” inspired by Romans 8:26-39

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. “. . . I have avoided the ways of the violent.” —Psalm 17:4a

¶ Just for fun. Cat herders! (1:00 video. Thanks Pat.)

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Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “The breadth of Heaven’s reach,” inspired by Romans 8:26-39
 
Other features

• “Religious liberty, or social mischief? Understanding the ‘wall of separation’ between church and state”

Above: The newborn calf (see the story at top) reaches out to grab Mom's tusk to stand for the first time.

©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.

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.

Signs of the Times  •  19 July 2017 •  No. 128

¶ Processional. “There’s a Meetin’ Here Tonight,” Cantus.

Above: Strawberry Hedgehog (Echinocereus engelmannii) cactus blooming in the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in South Texas. A federal official told the Texas Observer that the first section of the Trump Administration’s border wall “will essentially destroy” the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge, which is often called the crown jewel of the national wildlife refuge system. —Melissa del Bosque

Special issue
US MEDDLING IN OTHER COUNTRIES’ ELECTIONS

Introduction. It was an innocent and obvious question. My wife and I were watching a bit of news after dinner. Russian attempts to influence US elections were the background for all the talking heads.

        “Do these folk ever talk about US interference in other countries’ elections?” Nancy asked. “Where do you find information about that?”

        I responded, “Well, you have to look for it pretty hard.”

        Turns out, it’s not so hard to find this information. And since it’s a topic few mainstream news outlets are raising, I decided to do a little digging of my own. A small sampling of what I found is the special feature of this column.

¶ Invocation. “Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua. Osanna, Osanna in excelsis” (“Heaven and earth are full of thy glory. Hosanna, hosanna in the highest”) —“The Ground,” by Ola Gjeilo, performed by the Heritage Concert Choir at Western Washington University

¶ Good News. “The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe won a significant victory in its fight to protect the Tribe’s drinking water and ancestral lands from the Dakota Access pipeline. A federal judge ruled that the federal permits authorizing the pipeline to cross the Missouri River just upstream of the Standing Rock reservation, which were hastily issued by the Trump administration just days after the inauguration, violated the law in certain critical respects.
        “In a 91-page decision, Judge James Boasberg wrote, ‘the Court agrees that [the Army Corps of Engineers] did not adequately consider the impacts of an oil spill on fishing rights, hunting rights, or environmental justice, or the degree to which the pipeline’s effects are likely to be highly controversial.’” —theindigeneousamericans

¶ Call to worship. “Merciful One, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you hear my thoughts from far away. Encompass me with your Presence, and lay your hand on my heart.” —continue reading “Wonderfully made,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 139

¶ “Moscow didn’t do anything in America’s election that Washington hasn’t done elsewhere in the world.” —Stephen M. Walt, Business Insider

¶ Hymn of praise. “Hatred had me bound, had me tied down / Had me turned around, couldn't find my way / Then you walked with me and You set my spirit free / To me and my family down that long highway / Free at last, free at last / Free from the world and all it's sins / Free at last, free at last / I've been to the top of the mountain.” —Joan Baez, “Free At Last” (Thanks Tom.)

¶ “A 2016 study by [Carnegie Mellon University researcher Dov] Levin found that, among 938 global elections examined, the US and Russia combined had involved themselves in about one out of nine (117), with the majority of those (68%) being through covert, rather than overt, actions. The same study found that ‘on average, an electoral intervention in favor of one side contesting the election will increase its vote share by about 3%,’ an effect large enough to have potentially changed the results in seven out of 14 US presidential elections occurring after 1960. According to the study, the U.S. intervened in 81 foreign elections between 1946 and 2000, while the Soviet Union or Russia intervened in 36.” —Wikipedia

¶ “A brief history of the times the US meddled in others' elections.” —T.J. Raphael intervew with Tim Weiner, author of “Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA,” PRI

¶ Confession. “Indeed, meddling in foreign politics is a great American pastime. . . . For more than 100 years, without any significant break, the U.S. has been doing whatever it can to influence the outcome of elections―up to and including assassinating politicians it has found unfriendly.” —Ryan Grim & Arthur Delaney, Huffington Post

¶ “Over a period of more than a century, American leaders have used a variety of tools to influence voters in other countries. We have chosen candidates, advised them, financed their parties, designed their campaigns, bribed media outlets to support them, and intimidated or smeared their rivals.” —Stephen Kinzer, “We’ve been hacking elections for more than a century,” Boston Globe

¶ Listen as conservative Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) admits during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that the US has interfered 81 times in the elections of other countries. —CSPAN video (0:50), 9 January 2017

¶ “While the days of its worst behavior are long behind it, the US does have a well-documented history of interfering and sometimes interrupting the workings of democracies elsewhere. It has occupied and intervened militarily in a whole swath of countries in the Caribbean and Latin America and fomented coups against democratically elected populists.” —Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post

¶ Hymn of lamentation. “Wayfaring Stranger,” Rhiannon Giddens.

¶ “10 Times The U.S. ‘Hacked’ Foreign Elections and Democracies.” —W.E. Messamore, IVN

¶ Words of assurance. “There is coming a day when no heartaches shall come  / No more clouds in the sky, no more tears to dim the eye  / All is peace forevermore on that happy golden shore,  / What a day, glorious day that will be.” —Southern Gospel Revival, “What a Day That Will Be”

¶ “Of course, the irony behind these concerns about the interference of foreign nations in the domestic political affairs of the United States is that the US has blatantly interfered in the elections of many other nations, with methods that include not only financial support to preferred parties and the circulation of propaganda but also assassinations and overthrows of even democratically elected regimes.” —C.J. Polychroniou interview with Noam Chomsky, truth-out

¶ “Database Tracks History Of U.S. Meddling In Foreign Elections.” NPR's Ari Shapiro talks to Carnegie Mellon University researcher Dov Levin about his historical database that tracks U.S. involvement in meddling with foreign elections over the years. —National Public Radio

¶ Professing our faith. “С нами Бог” (“God Is With Us”), Divna Ljubojevic and Melodi.

¶ “Acting under a secret National Security Council directive without authorization from Congress, the Central Intelligence Agency set to work” influencing the 1948 election in Italy. Whether its support of the Christian Democratic Party’s win was needed, “the agency was encouraged by the victory and the CIA’s practice of purchasing elections and politicians with bags of cash was repeated in Italy—and in many other nations—for the next twenty-five years.” —Joshua Keating, “Election Meddling Is Surprisingly Common,” Slate

¶ After Salvador Allende was elected president of Chile in 1970, “the Central Intelligence Agency attempted, through a terrorist group, to block Salvador Allende” from taking office.
        “‘Make the economy scream,’ [US President] Nixon ordered the CIA, while Kissinger infamously quipped, ‘I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people.’ In 1973, Allende died in a military coup instigated and welcomed by the American government. And Chile, the nation that I called home, endured 17 years of torture, bloodshed and oppression before we managed to peacefully fight our way back to democracy.” —Ariel Dorfman, CNN

¶ Hymn of intercession. “Freedom,” Richie Havens, improvising “Motherless Child” at Woodstock in 1969.

¶ By the numbers. There have been only 17 years since 1776 when the US has not be involved in a war. See the list.

¶ Offertory. “Paris Blues,” Django Reinhardt.

¶ Preach it. “Earth is so thick with divine possibility that it is a wonder we can walk anywhere without cracking our shins on altars.” —Barbara Brown Taylor

¶ Can’t makes this sh*t up. National Public Radio has a 29-year tradition of reading the US Declaration of Independence on 4 July. This year they took to social media as well, tweeting the document in 113 consecutive posts. Some followers weren’t happy, one referring to it as “propaganda.” Among other responses: don’t want to read “this trash”; “this is why you’re going to get defunded”; and “So, NPR is calling for revolution.” —Amy B. Want, Washington Post (Thanks Amy.)

¶ Call to the table. “You have drunk a bitter wine / With none to be your comfort / You who once were left behind / Will be welcome at love's table.” —Julie Miller, “By Way of Sorrow”

¶ The state of our disunion. Electoral victories by Republicans are bad for gun sales. On the day after the election last fall, shares of gun maker Sturm Ruger fell 14%; Smith & Wesson fell 15%. “In the gun industry, politics and fear matter.” —Uri Berliner, NPR

¶ Best one-liner. The word “listen” contains the same letters as the word “silent.” —Alfred Brendel

¶ For the beauty of the earth. Watch Video of Venus and Earth forming beautiful flower pattern orbiting Sun. (1:03 video)

¶ Featured new essay. “Not so long ago a sermon on religious liberty would likely provoke yawns. The widespread and diverse claims of “religious freedom” are so common and unquestioned in our culture, they mostly go without notice.
        “In recent years, however, a new crop of claims of religious freedom has arisen to give credence to some very old forms of discrimination. Some claims to religious liberty disguise social mischief. How do we distinguish the two?” —continue reading “Religious liberty, or social mischief? Understanding the “wall of separation” between church and state”

¶ Altar call. "The way we are, we are members of each other. All of us. Everything. The difference ain't in who is a member and who is not, but in who knows it and who don't." —Wendell Berry’s character Burley Coulter in "The Wild Birds"

¶ Benediction. "Keep knocking, and the joy inside will eventually open a window and look out to see who’s there." —Rumi

¶ Recessional. “Walking in Jerusalem,” Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys.

¶ Lectionary for this Sunday. “Sister and brothers, why are we here, again, week after bloody week, weak after so much weary, warring news? . . . / Groaning with sighs too deep for words, singing our woebegone songs for the world that is promised from beyond every prediction, / beyond every market forecast, beyond every rule of engagement, beyond—at times—even our own faltering faith. / It is for that Bright Land that we intercede!” —continue reading “For that Bright Land,” a poem inspired by Romans 8:18-27

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. “The Love of Christ . .  / is the still, deep stream amid / Every tempest that knows / nothing, nothing, / can separate us from the / length and breadth / of Heaven’s reach.” —continue reading “The breadth of Heaven’s reach,” inspired by Romans 8:26-39

¶ Just for fun. Here’s the ultimate way to quit a job. —The Playmakers Comedy (1:00 vdeo. Thanks Chris.)

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Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “Religious liberty, or social mischief? Understanding the ‘wall of separation’ between church and state,” a sermon

• “For that Bright Land,” a poem inspired by Romans 8:18-27

• “Wonderfully made,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 139

• “The breadth of Heaven’s reach,” a poem inspired by Romans 8:26-39
 
Other features
• 50+ new annotated book reviews in “What are you reading and why?”

©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.

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.

Signs of the Times  •  11 July 2017  •  No. 127

¶ Invocation. “I will bow and be simple, / I will bow and be free, / I will bow and be humble, / Yea, bow like the willow tree. / I will bow, this is the token, / I will wear the easy yoke, / I will bow and will be broken, / Yea, I'll fall upon the rock.” —a Shaker hymn, “I Will Bow and Be Simple” performed The Christmas Revels

Above: Photo by Gus Ravenwheel

Abbreviated issue

This week’s column is brief to allow for some maintenance.

¶ In his classic book on spirituality and prophetic life, We Drink From Our Own Wells, Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutiérrez writes:

        “At the root of every spirituality there is a particular experience that is had by concrete persons living at a particular time. . . . The great spiritualities in the life of the church continue to exist because they keep sending their followers back to the sources. . . . Spiritual experience is the terrain in which theological reflection strikes root. Intellectual comprehension makes it possible to carry the experience always comes first and is the source.”

        Articulating the faith—in commonplace terms or literate—is always secondary to actual living in the midst of particular, often mundane, circumstances. But we all profit from those whose capacity with words throw light on our common journey.

        In recent weeks I’ve been especially taken by the reflected experience shared by two friends. Below are excerpts.

        Finally, we close with a word of victory from the war against ISIS—which raises the question, what has been won?

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¶ Micah Bucey, associate pastor of Judson Memorial Church in New York City, received a damning letter after the recent “Gay Pride” march. I love the way he responds with a fierce mercy and also by affirming this movement in the context of a larger Movement:

        “. . . But this year, our Pride March will be a Resistance Riot, a queer agenda that moves beyond the gay one, an embodied reminder, not only to you, but to ourselves, a reminder that we are only as queer as the last person we’ve saved, that we are only as queer as the last battle we’ve fought, that we are only as queer as the last opportunity we took to step outside our complacent commitments to assimilation and nudge ourselves back to the revolution that saved our lives in the first place.” —you can read the entirety of Micah’s response on Facebook

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¶ Greg Yost, formerly a high school math teacher, is among the founders and leaders of Beyond Extreme Energy, an environmental group that focuses on opposing natural gas pipelines and storage facilities. (Methane, the primary component in natural gas, is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.)

        In a recent sermon in our congregation, Greg used Jesus’ statement, “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39), then recounted his Witness for Peace trip to Nicaragua when he was 19, during the US-backed Contra War during the 1980s, when the US attempted to overthrow the country’s democratically elected government.

        “. . . That short time in Nicaragua in 1986 was a defining moment in my life of faith. But I want to be clear about what it has meant subsequently. Despite the physical and spiritual drama, I did not experience the trip as some hard-won climb to a higher spiritual vantage point. Rather, it has been less about elevation and much more about orientation. It decisively affected the direction of my life’s compass needle. It has made me hold some things looser and other things much tighter than I ever would have otherwise.

        “I offer this testimony confident that many of you will have experienced a similar orienting moment in your own life of faith. If you have, I invite you to reflect on it now. One time-tested way of speaking of such things is using the language of ‘conversion.’

        “I know common religious misuse and abuse of that word may have made it off putting for some, but I’d invite you to let your guard down. Think about what it means. It’s well and good that together we have such varied ways individually of conceptualizing our spiritual lives. One way that is so, so powerful is that of simply following Jesus. We know from the gospels enough about who he is and what he will dare to do to know that moments of decision, or conversion, are an essential requirement for joining him along that way. He told us, plainly and repeatedly, that his way leads to a cross. No one sets a course thus by happenstance.”

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¶ Benediction. “There will be a jubilee / Oh my lord oh my lord / There will be a jubilee / When the children all go free / Yeah they'll lay down their swords / They'll study war no more / There'll be a great big jubilee.” —The Devil Makes Three, “There’ll Be a Jubilee”

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©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.

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