Signs of the Times  •  23 February 2017  •  No. 110

¶ Processional. “Create In Me a Clean Heart (Psalm 51),” Thingamakid children’s choir, Jacobs Jewish Summer Camp.

Above: A cloud of ash, set aglow by lightning, billowing from Puyehue volcano near Osorno, Chile. (Getty)

¶ Invocation. “Come, O Life-giving Creator, / and rattle the door latch / of my slumbering heart. / Awaken me as you breathe upon / a winter-wrapped earth, / gently calling to virgin Spring.” — Edward Hayes, ”A Lenten Psalm of Awakening,” in Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim

¶ Call to worship. “Give Me a Clean Heart,” James Cleveland & the Southern California Community Choir.

¶ “Do not bother looking for Lent in your Bible dictionary. There was no such thing in biblical times. There is some evidence that early Christians fasted 40 hours between Good Friday and Easter, but the custom of spending 40 days in prayer and self-denial did not arise until later, when the initial rush of Christian adrenaline was over and believers had gotten very ho-hum about their faith.” —Barbara Brown Taylor, “Settling for Less,” a Lenten reflection

¶ Good news following bad. A Muslim-American initiative to raise $20,000 for repairing vandalism at a St. Louis area Jewish cemetery (above–Reuters photo) surpassed that amount within hours and, at last report, stands at $116,000. “On the heels of bomb threats and hate crimes against dozens of Jewish community centers across the United States, a historical Jewish cemetery was vandalized this past weekend when over 170 headstones were damaged. Muslim Americans stand in solidarity with the Jewish-American community to condemn this horrific act of desecration against the Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery. We also extend our deepest condolences to all those who have been affected and to the Jewish community at large.” —LaunchGood

¶ Hymn of praise. “Choneni Elohim” (“Be gracious to me, O G-d”), from Psalm 51, written and performed by Christene Jackma.

¶ “February comes from februum, the Latin word for purification. But before February became the universally adopted name of this month, it was known by others—such as the Anglo Saxon Solmoneth (mud month). It seems appropriate that February is when we transition (think detoxification) from the feasting of Christmas and Epiphany to the fasting of Lent. —Malinda Elizabeth Berry, “Walking Toward Possibility,” Sojourners

¶ Confession. “Those who observe [Lent] believe they are giving up things they want in order to focus on what God wants. There’s little popular appeal in that.” —Scott McConnell, Lifeway Research, in Bob Smietana, “East, Pray, Lent: Here’s What Americans Actually Abstain From,” Christianity Today

¶ In his 2015 Lenten message, Pope Francis urged the faithful to give up indifference instead of chocolate for Lent. —for more see Christopher J. Hale, Time magazine

¶ Hymn of lamentation. “Miserere Mei Deus” (God have mercy on me), Psalm 51 set to music in 1630 by Gregorio Allegri, performed by The Sixteen.

¶ Several years ago, at an Ash Wednesday service, the woman preaching that evening made a stunning confession. “Ash Wednesday is actually my favorite holiday,” she said. Pretty strange, we all thought. —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Ash Wednesday: The only counter cultural holiday we have left”

¶ Planning for Lent.

        § This year my congregation’s weekly Lenten reflection group will combine lectio divina (contemplative form of Bible reading)  on the coming Sunday’s texts along with reading three of Dr. Martin Luther King’s most significant writings. (See below.) And since Lent invites meditation on the brevity of our own mortal lives, each session we will listen to songs group members want played at their own funeral.

        § Lenten resource. This year is the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s final, and most controversial, speech: “Beyond Vietnam: Time to Break the Silence.” Given the fact that his famous “I Have a Dream” speech has become a bit dreamy in our time, “Beyond Vietnam” puts the bite back into Dr. King’s prophet challenge. The Muste Institute offers a convenient and affordable 48-page pamphlet containing three from King’s writings: “Loving Your Enemies” (sermon); “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” (written while in prison); and “Declaration of Independence From the War in Vietnam” (often titled “Beyond Vietnam: Time to Break the Silence”): $2.00 each or $1.40 for 20 or more copies, postpaid; Spanish language version also available, from the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute.

        § The online site “Radical Discipleship” is preparing an intensive, daily reflection on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s last major speech, “Beyond Vietnam: Time To Break the Silence” for Lent, starting with Ash Wednesday. Their daily offerings will include 1-2 paragraphs from that historic speech, along with short devotionals from peace and justice movement leaders from all over North America. If you want to get an automated email alert for each day’s posting, go to Radical Discipleship’s site and click on the “follow” button on the lower right side. (There is no cost, and it’s easy to “unfollow” at any time.)

¶ When only the (Aramaic) blues will do. “Psalm 51,” Choir of St. Simon the Leper, Republic of Georgia (sung in Aramaic).

¶ Words of assurance. “This the goodness of the News we hear and proclaim: What is needed is not perfection but penitence. Our shortcomings do not finally confine us. Our mistakes are not permanent. Grace is greater than our shame, and mercy will triumph over vengeance.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Create in me a clean heart,” a litany inspired by Psalm 51

¶ Hymn of resolution. “Give Me a Clean Heart,” Marietta Wolfe & the London Symphony Orchestra.

¶ Professing our faith. The relinquishment God asks of us—the desert into which Jesus guides us—is not a kind of spiritual immolation. The open-handed posture of Lent is not a form of groveling, as a beggar to a patron. The flame of the Spirit’s igniting presence does not scorch us. It makes us radiant. The ascetic practices of spiritual discipline are training for life lived unleashed from our shriveled little egos. —Ken Sehested

¶ I’ve seen several efforts written to encourage persistence during trumpfoolery’s reign. Here’s one I especially like: “Finding steady ground: strengthening our spirits to resist and thrive in these times.” It offers seven guidelines, each accompanied with brief commentary, composed to reach the broadest value-based constituency.

        1. I will make a conscious decision about when and where I'll get news — and what I'll do afterwards.

        2. I will get together with some people face-to-face to support each other and make sure we stay in motion. —continue reading the seven guidelines of “Finding Steady Ground.”

¶ Hymn of intercession. “Psalm 51” sung in Malayalam, a language spoken primarily in the Indian state of Karala.

¶ Short story. “The desert has a way of rearranging priorities,” said Beatriz Lopez Gargallo, the Mexican consul general for Nogales, speaking of Manuel Jesus Cordova Soberanes, 26, an illegal immigrant who rescued Christopher Buchleitner, of Rimrock, Arizona, a 9-year-old after the boy’s mother died in a car accident in the southern Arizona desert.

        “Cordova was two days into his journey to Arizona from Mexico when he spotted the boy, alone and injured in the desert. His leg was scraped up, he was dressed in shorts despite the desert cold and his mother had just been killed when their van went over a cliff. The boy crawled out and went looking for help. Cordova gave the boy his sweater, fed him chocolate and cookies and built a bonfire.

        “Authorities say if it hadn’t been for Cordova, Christopher might be dead. Cordova, who was honored for his rescue by U.S. and Mexican officials at a border crossing, was taken into custody by the U.S. Border Patrol and agreed to return to Mexico without going through formal deportation proceedings.” —Amanda Lee Myers, Associated Press

¶ By the numbers. “Suicide—not combat—is the leading killer of U.S. troops deployed to the Middle East to fight Islamic State militants, according to newly released Pentagon statistics. Of the 31 troops who have died as of Dec. 27 in Operation Inherent Resolve, 11 have taken their own lives. Eight died in combat, seven in accidents and four succumbed to illness or injury. The cause of one death is under investigation.” —Tom Vanden Brook, USA Today

¶ Offertory. “Psalm 51” (Tui Amoris Ignem), Taizé instrumental.

¶ “The movement from loneliness to solitude, however, is the beginning of any spiritual life because it is the movement from the restless senses to the restful spirit, from the outward-reaching cravings to the inward-reaching search, from the fearful clinging to the fearless play." —Henri Nouwen

¶ Preach it. "No act of virtue can be great if it is not followed by advantage for others. So, no matter how much time you spend fasting, no matter how much you sleep on a hard floor and eat ashes and sigh continually, if you do no good to others, you do nothing great." —John Chrysostom, Christian mystic and 4th century Archbishop of Constantinople

¶ Can’t makes this sh*t up. The photo (at right) went viral after the photograph appeared following a Trump rally in Minneapolis shortly before the November election. The designer, likely a blogger named Misha, promoted an even more grisly t-shirt in 2006 following a Supreme Court decision he opposed, with the caption: “Five ropes, five robes, five trees.” —Photo by Jonathan Ernst/Reuters. For more on the above news, see Brandy Adrozny, “The Man Behind ‘Journalist, Rope, Tree,’” The Daily Beast.

¶ Call to the table. “‘Fear of God’ is not cowering, frightened intimidation. Those who fear God are not wimps and are not preoccupied with excessive need to please God. They are rather those who have arrived at a fundamental vision of reality about life with God, who have enormous power, freedom, and energy to live out that vision. ‘Fear of God’ is liberating and not restrictive, because it gives confidence about the true shape of the world.” —Walter Brueggemann, Remember You Are Dust

¶ The state of our disunion. Columnist Jeffrey Salkin, talking about Trump’s failure to mention Jews in his comments on International Holocaust Remembrance Day: “That’s like talking about the Crucifixion and forgetting to mention Jesus.” —quoted in Salkin’s “Meet Trump’s Holocaust tutor,” Religion News Service

¶ Best one-liner. “Is Trump going to make America first, or simply alone?” —Trevor Noah, The Daily Show

¶ For the beauty of the earth. “20 Incredible Landmarks You’ve Never Heard Of.”

¶ Altar call. “The season of Lent is upon us. Listen for your instructions! Now is the time to flee Pharaoh’s national security state for the insecurity of the wilderness. Now is the time to listen for the Word whose hearing bypasses the ears of princes and high priests but is heard only in the wilderness.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Lent is upon us,” a liturgy for Lent

¶ A 20-minute meditation for Lent. This outstanding TED Talk by William Ury, on conflict negotiation, highlights a key to Lent’s invitation to penitence: not to shame but to the difficult work of stepping back from history’s bloody momentum to see possibilities previously hidden. (My words, not his. Thanks Dan.)

¶ Benediction. “Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world.” —Joseph Campbell

¶ Recessional. “If you want to find Jesus, go in the wilderness.” —The Princely Players, “Go in the Wilderness”

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. “Then Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness.” (Matthew 4:1). —see “Wilderness: Lenten preparation,” a collection of biblical texts that speak of wilderness

¶ Just for fun. Low church liturgical dance. 

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Above: Art ©Julie Lonneman

Featured this week on prayer&politiks

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

• “Lent is upon us,” a liturgy for Lent

• “Fasting: Ancient practice, modern relevance”

• “Wilderness: Lenten preparation," a collection of biblical texts that speak of wilderness

©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  •  16 February 2017  •  No. 109

¶ Processional. “What a Wonderful World,” Playing for Change.

Above: Grey seal, photographed by Ellen Cuylaerts. For more marvelous photos, see Alan Taylor, “The 2017 Underwater Photographer of the Year Contest,” The Atlantic

¶ Invocation. “I am waiting for you / For only to adore you / My heart is for you / My love / My love / My love.” —Sinead O’Connor “In This Heart”

¶ Good news. More than 800 congregations have declared themselves sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants, a number that’s nearly doubled in the three weeks. Also, Omar Suleiman, professor of Islamic Studies at Southern Methodist University, is organizing an effort calling on mosques to serve as sanctuaries. —Laren Markoe, Religion News Service

¶ Short (and amazing) story. “The children were going to die. Mohamed Bzeek (below) knew that. But in his more than two decades as a foster father, he took them in anyway—the sickest of the sick in Los Angeles County’s sprawling foster care system. He has buried about 10 children. Some died in his arms.” —Hailey Branson-Potts, LA Times

¶ Not so good news. “. . . the powers of the president to protect our country will not be questioned.” —Senior White House policy adviser Stephen Miller, Washington Post

¶ Call to worship. “People killin', people dyin' / Children hurt and you hear them cryin' / Can you practice what you preach / And would you turn the other cheek.” —Black Eyed Peas, “#WHEREISTHELOVE” (Thanks Anne.)

¶ Theologian and biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann shines a light on nationalism and idolatry in the American church. (3:45 video)

¶ USA! We’re #1! In prison population (and incarceration rates); energy use per person; small arms exports; per capita health expenditures; credit card, student loan and mortgage debt.
        In oil consumption; breast augmentation; death by violence; anxiety disorders; illegal drug use; teen pregnancy; school shootings; child abuse rates; election campaign spending.
        In military spending; foreign military bases (by a whole-whole lot); gun ownership; car thefts; fast food and soft-drink consumption; eating disorders; obesity.
        In divorce rate; child abuse death rate; lawyers per capita; prescription drugs (and drug advertising); mental illness diagnoses; and TV watching (though we’re tied with the UK on that last one). —see Michael Snyder, "USA #1? 40 Embarrassing Things That America Is The Best In The World At”

¶ A Gallup International poll of citizens in 68 countries “found the US as the greatest threat to peace in the world, voted three times more dangerous to world peace than the next country. —Carl Herman, Washington Post

¶ Hymn of praise. “Sweet Is the Melody,” Iris Dement.

¶ Confession. “The crisis in the US church has almost nothing to do with being liberal or conservative; it has everything to do with giving up on the faith and discipline of our Christian baptism and settling for a common, generic US identity that is part patriotism, part consumerism, part violence, and part affluence.” —Walter Brueggemann

¶ “All around America, I have met amazing people whose words of worship and encouragement have been a constant source of strength [saying] ‘I am praying for you.’” —Donald Trump, National Prayer Breakfast, full text is available at Time magazine

¶ In 1973 a very different National Prayer Breakfast message was spoken by Republican Senator Mark O. Hatfield.
        “If we as leaders appeal to the god of civil religion, our faith is in a small and exclusive deity, a loyal spiritual Advisor to power and prestige, a Defender of only the American nation, the object of a national folk religion devoid of moral content. . . .
        “We need a ‘confessing church’—a body of people who confess Jesus as Lord and are prepared to live by their confession. Lives lived under the Lordship of Jesus Christ at this point in our history may well put us at odds with values of our society, abuses of political power.” —see more at Wes Granberg-Michaelson, SojoNet

¶ "In the formation of the American ideal and principles of what we consider to be exceptional American values, Muslims were, at the beginning, the litmus test for whether the reach of American constitutional principles would include every believer, every kind, or not." —Denise Spellberg, author of Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an: Islam and the Founders, cited in Elahe Izadi, The Washington Post

¶ The wording of this art (at right) is a play on what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in silencing Sen. Elizabeth Warren, during Sen. Jeff Session’s confirmation hearing as Trump’s new attorney general, as she read a letter from Coretta Scott King first submitted to the Senate in 1986 in opposition to Jeff Session’s nomination as a federal judge. —see more at Wesley Lowery, Washington Post

¶ See this nine-second video of McConnell silencing Warren.

¶ Dozens of “Nevertheless, she persisted” designs can be seen at Society6.

¶ Words of assurance. “The Unclouded Day,” Don Henley.

¶ “If America's No. 1, Who's No. 2? European Nations Compete For The, Uh, Honor.” —Camila Domonoske, NPR

¶ Testify. “I don’t want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it.” —Billy Graham, 1981

¶ Hymn of resolution. “Freedom,” Pharrell Williams.

¶ “Concealed within that oft-cited ‘freedom’—the all-purpose justification for deploying American power—were several shades of meaning. The term, in fact, requires decoding. Yet within the upper reaches of the American national security apparatus, one definition takes precedence over all others. In Washington, freedom has become a euphemism for dominion.” —historian and retired Army Colonel Andrew Bacevich, “Iraq and Afghanistan Have Officially Become Vietnam 2.0”

 ¶ “The United States, as a great power, has essentially taken on the task of sustaining the international order.” —former U.S. Secretary of Defense James R. Schlesinger, 1985 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on American

¶ There’s us, and there’s them. Admonishment from our Danish friends, on so many things that aggrieve us here. (3:00 video)

¶ Hymn of intercession. “Abide,” Carrie Newcomer and Parker Palmer.

¶ Our down-the-rabbit-hole political environment has led to exposing some of our nation’s dirty laundry—oddly, from America-first advocates.

        • In his recent interview, news commentator Bill O’Reilly’s questioned Trump’s cozy relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling Putin a “killer,” Trump said “We’ve got a lot of killers. Boy, you think our country’s so innocent? You think our country’s so innocent?”

        • Downplaying Russian hacking the US election, Columnist Cal Thomas recited numerous occasions when the US has overthrown foreign governments, rhetorically asking “Is any of this morally different from what Putin allegedly orchestrated to influence the American election?”

        • Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) pushed Thomas’ comparisons even further, citing a Carnegie Mellon University study “that estimates the US has been involved in 81 elections [in other countries] in one way or another since World War II.” —Joel Burgess & Mark Barrett, Asheville Citizen-Times

¶ “The question of who constitutes ‘we the people’ is one of the fundamental questions of American history. All the facts point to one answer. The makeup of ‘we’ is determined by power, not by inalienable rights. The ones with the guns, with the money, with the land, with the weight of policy to control bodies of others, those are the ones to whom the possessive pronouns of America are available. Such possession is determined in many ways, but we always return to melanin and the concentration of it as reason for dispossession.” —Greg Jarrell, Baptist News Global

¶ Offertory. “Your Eyes,” Anoushka Shankar.

¶ Preach it. “The ultimate instrument of our unity is the patient grace of God, not the greatness of the nation state.” —20 January 2017 editorial, America: The Jesuit Review

¶ Can’t makes this sh*t up.

        • “House Republicans Just Voted to Eliminate the Only Federal Agency That Makes Sure Voting Machines Can’t Be Hacked.” —Ari Berman, The Nation

      • “House Votes To Overturn Obama Rule Restricting Gun Sales To The Severely Mentally Ill,” Jessica Taylor, NPR.

      • Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) led the charge in overturning a regulation preventing coal mining companies from dumping their waste in nearby streams, bringing to the floor an unemployed coal miner so he could “see the person who put him out of work. Yet two weeks earlier McConnell’s office “blocked efforts to rescue the health and pension funds on which thousands of retired and disabled miners rely.” —Joby Warrick & Lydia DePillis, Washington Post

        • The US Airline Pilots Association, backed by dozens of members of congress, want the Trump administration to block access to US airports by Norwegian Air Shuttle (NAS). Why? Because NAS is actually based in Ireland where they pay lower wages. Outrageous! —see Bill Carey, AINonline

¶ Religious liberty for Muslims was championed by Roger Williams in colonial America, and specifically mentioned in early US constitutional wording. Thomas Jefferson, who 1786 penned Virginia’s Statue for Religious Freedom—which became the model for the religious liberty amendment to the US Constitution—which extended explicit protection to “the Jew and the gentile, the Christian and the Mohametan” [Muslim]. And, in fact, the Virginia legislature explicitly rejected inclusion of language recognizing “Jesus Christ” in the bill. —see Elahe Izadi, “Obama, Thomas Jefferson and the history of the fascinating history of Founding Fathers defending Muslim rights”

Right: “Transfiguration” by Socrates Magno Torres

¶ Call to the table. “The goal of any true resistance is to affect outcomes, not just to vent. And the only way to affect outcomes and thrive in our lives, is to find the eye in the hurricane, and act from that place of inner strength.” —Arianna Huggington, “How to Get Out of the Cyle of Outrage in a Trump World” (Thanks Abigail.)

¶ “Americans aren’t as attached to democracy as you might think.” A recent survey documents troubling trends. Only 53% said they “trust judges more than President Trump,” and among Trump supporters, 51% said the president should be allowed to overrule court decisions. In another study, less than 1 in 3 of millennials believe it “essential to live in a democracy.” —Austin Sarat, The Guardian

¶ As part of its coverage of Black History Month, last year The New York Times printed a series of previously unpublished archival photos of African Americans, including one of a 17-year-old Lew Alcindor, Jr., who changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

¶ The state of our disunion. “On Nov 9, when New York’s Muslim Community Network posted a notice on Facebook about a self-defense workshop [for women], leaders expected 50 to 60 women would respond. Within hours, 2,700 women had signed up.” —Yonat Shimron, Religion News Service

¶ Best one-liner. “To paraphrase Rodney Dangerfield, when we try to look out for number one, we’re likely to step in number two.” —Stan Dotson, “In Our Elements”

¶ For the beauty of the earth universe. “Laniakea: Our home supercluster” (4:10 video) visualizes a breakthrough by astronomers to “map” earth’s location in the universe. It’s pretty amazing. (Thanks Hope.)

¶ Altar call. "The failure to love enemies is to hedge on Jesus.” —read “Circle of Mercy Is a Peace Church,” Circle of Mercy Congregation, Asheville, NC

¶ Benediction. “The nonviolent war cry of the people of God inaugurates our proper evangelistic vocation: that another world is not only possible but is actively moving in our direction.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “We’ve a story to tell to the nations: The nonviolent war cry of the people of God”

Right: “Transfiguration” fresco, St. Constantine and Helena Orthodox Church, Bruges, Belgium

¶ Recessional. “Preobrazhenie” (Transfiguration), Isihia.

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. Commenting on Luke 9:28-43, the juxtaposed stories of Jesus' "transfiguration" on the mountain when he walked with Moses and Elijah and then going down the mountain immediately healing an convulsing child, Robert McAfee Brown writes: "It is all of a piece—ecstasy and epilepsy. This is what Messiahship is all about: being in the midst of the poor, the sick, the helpless, those with frothing mouths. Messiahship—like Christian living—is not just 'mountaintop experiences" or "acts of concern for human welfare;' it is a necessary combination of the two.”

¶ Just for fun. Fans of The Simpsons may remember the episode where Bart and the Flanders kids play a video game called "Billy Graham's Bible Blasters"
        Rod: "Convert the heathen!"
        Bart: "Got 'em!"
        Rod: "No, you just winged him and made him a Unitarian."

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Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “Circle of Mercy Is a Peace Church,” Circle of Mercy Congregation, Asheville, NC

• “We’ve a story to tell to the nations: The nonviolent war cry of the people of God”

• "Songs about immigrants and refugees." I pulled together my list of favorite songs about immigrants and refugees, shared it with some friends, got additional titles, for this chart of 26 songs (in no particular order). —kls

 Other features

• “Fasting: Ancient practice, modern relevance”

• “Wilderness: Lenten preparation," a collection of biblical texts that speak of wilderness

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

©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  •  9 February 2017  •  No. 108

¶ Processional. “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” John McDermott.

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

¶ Call to worship. “The end of life is not to be happy. The end of life is not to achieve pleasure and avoid pain. The end of life is to do the will of God, come what may.” —Martin Luther King Jr.

¶ Hymn of praise. “Genuine Negro Jig,”  Carolina Chocolate Drops (“And David danced before the Ark of the Covenant”).

¶ Good news. “While the situation is still dire, with Black farmers comprising only about 1% of the industry, we have not disappeared. After more than a century of decline, the number of Black farmers is on the rise.” —Leah Penniman, Yes! Magazine

¶ For Black History Month, make time in your schedule to view the “The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross,” the PBS series (6 episodes) produced by Henry Louis Gates Jr. Each is about 53 minutes in length.

¶ Confession. “'Sin,' he reflected, 'is not what it is usually thought to be; it is not to steal and tell lies. Sin is for one [person] to walk brutally over the life of another and to be quite oblivious of the wounds [they] have left behind.” —Shūsaku Endō, Silence

¶ “Ida B. Wells, a fearless anti-lynching organizer, and other African American women leaders “viewed white Christianity as a contradiction of true Christian identity, largely because of its support of segregation and lynching. ‘Would to God that it were,’ complained the National Baptist leader Nannie Helen Burroughs, when she rejected America’s Christian identity, ‘but it is the most lawless and desperately wicked nation on the globe.’ Lynching, she insisted, was ‘no superficial thing . . . it is in the blood of the nation. And the process of eliminating it will be difficult and long.’” —James Cone, The Cross and the Lynching Tree

¶ Slavery has likely been practiced since before written history. But prior to European “discovery” of the “new world,” slaves were those captured in military conquest. Here in the Americas, for the first time, slavery became race-based.
        “Increasingly, the dominant English came to view Africans not as ‘heathen people’ but as ‘black people.’ They began, for the first time, to describe themselves not as Christians but as whites. And they gradually wrote this shift into their colonial laws.” —Peter H. Wood, Slate magazine (Thanks Tami)

¶ View to this “Democracy Now” video (19 minutes) on “the complicity of American presidents with slavery. More than one-in-four US presidents were involved in human trafficking and slavery,” including an interview with Dr. Clarence Lusane, author of The Black History of the White House.

¶ On complicating the history of the US. “Mr. Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Jackson: When you put your hand on the Bible and swore to protect this country, let’s be honest in who you were talking about.” —“Letter to Five of the Presidents who owned slaves while they were in office,” poet Clint Smith, video by Steve Goldbloom Zach-Land-Miller, PBS (3:37 video)

¶ Hymn of lamentation. “Oh Lord, You Know Just How I Feel,” Fannie Lou Hamer

¶ President Donald Trump is “advancing a white nationalist agenda and vision of America, whether that be by demonizing blacks in the 'inner city,' Mexicans at the border or Muslims from the Middle East.” —Charles M. Blow, "No, Trump, Not on Our Watch,” New York Times

¶ In his review of Raoul Peck’s “I Am Not Your Negro,”  a documentary on the life of novelist and playwright James Baldwin, A.O. Scott remarks:
        “Baldwin could not have known about Ferguson and Black Lives Matter, about the presidency of Barack Obama and the recrudescence of white nationalism in its wake, but in a sense he explained it all in advance. He understood the deep, contradictory patterns of our history. . . the dialectic of guilt and rage, forgiveness and denial that distorts relations between black and white citizens in the North as well as the South; the lengths that white people will go to wash themselves clean of their complicity in oppression.”

¶ Words of assurance. “His Eye Is On the Sparrow,” Lauryn Hill & Tanya Blount.

¶ If current economic trends continue, the average black household will need 228 years to accumulate as much wealth as their white counterparts hold today. —Joshua Holland, The Nation

¶ Professing our faith. “America, you must be born again.” —Martin Luther King Jr.

¶ Short story from baseball legend Hank Aaron. “We had breakfast while we were waiting for the rain to stop, and I can still envision sitting with the Clowns [Cleveland Negro League baseball team] in a restaurant behind Griffith Stadium [in Washington, DC, 1952] and hearing them break all the plates in the kitchen after we finished eating. What a horrible sound. Even as a kid, the irony of it hit me: here we were in the capital in the land of freedom and equality, and they had to destroy the plates that had touched the forks that had been in the mouths of black men. If dogs had eaten off those plates, they'd have washed them." —“8 Times Hank Aaron Faced Racism: #1, The Negro Leagues,” SB Nation (Thanks Abigail.)

¶ The initial goal of former President Richard Nixon’s [1969-‘74]“Southern strategy” was to “woo Southern whites, who were angry about the advances of the civil-rights movement, with coded racial messaging that wouldn’t alienate the party’s Northern supporters. ‘You have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks,’ Nixon once explained to his chief of staff, H.R. Halderman. ‘The key is to devise a system that recognizes that while not appearing to.’” [It’s pretty clear now that Southerners weren’t the only ones being wooed. Thanks Bob.] —Gary Younge, Moyers & Company

¶ Vonn New, a white woman participating in Black Lives Matter actions, has compiled a list of nine guidelines for white allies. —read Vonn New’s 9 guidelines

¶ Preach it. “"Between the Christianity of this land and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference—so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure and holy is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt and wicked." —Frederick Douglass. See more quotes from Douglass.

¶ Can’t makes this sh*t up. “A 60-ish guy in a black tank top who, annoyed both at having to wait for a tour and at the fact that the next tour focused on slaves, came back at me with, "Yeah, well, Egyptians enslaved the Israelites, so I guess what goes around comes around!" —Margaret Biser, “I used to lead tours at a plantation. You won’t believe the questions I got about slavery” Vox (Thanks Alan.)

¶ Call to the table. “There is no reason for you to try to become like white people and there is no basis whatever for their impertinent assumption that they must accept you.  The really terrible thing, old buddy, is that you must accept them. And I mean that very seriously. You must accept them and accept them with love.  For those innocent people have no other hope. They are, in effect, still trapped in a history which they do not understand; and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it. —James Baldwin in “My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundred Anniversary of the Emancipation”

¶ “If rich folks' kids get in trouble, they go to rehab. Poor folks' kids get in trouble, they go to prison.” —Vann Jones talks to us about how mass incarceration is hurting our communities. AJ+ video (2:48. Thanks Abigail.)

Right: "Pap lady" by Charis Tsevis

¶ The state of our disunion. A Public Religion Reseach Institute (PRRI) survey released in June shows that 67% of white Americans agree that Americans protesting government mistreatment always leaves the country better off. “But fewer than half (48%) of whites say the same when asked about black Americans speaking out against and protesting unfair treatment by the government,” the report says. —Cathy Lynn Grossman, Religion News Service

¶ Lucy Massie Phenix's “You Got to Move: Stories of Change in the South” is about individuals who have dared to change the world for the better and Tennessee s world-renowned Highlander Folk School (now Highlander Research and Education Center), the place that for 85 years has taught them how to achieve this change—including a young Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. —watch this trailer (1:57 video) of the one hour twenty-five minute documentary

¶ Best one-liner. Stop trying to make everyone happy—you aren’t chocolate. —author unknown (Thanks Karen.)

¶ “If you want to understand the relationship between African Americans and the country that they inhabit, you must understand that one of the central features of that relationship is plunder—the taking from black people in order to empower other people. . . . Plunder is not incidental to who we are; plunder is not incidental to what America is.” —Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Clock Didn’t Start With the Riots,” The Nation

¶ If all we feel is shame after reviewing of the carnage of racism, we miss the point—and, in fact, yet again we’ve made the conversation about ourselves. The awareness is indeed painful, but the pain’s purpose is not punishment but a penitence that generates the resolve to engage the difficult work of reconciliation. —kls

¶ For the beauty of the earth. “Yellowstone Forever Photo Contest 2016: Top 100 photos.” (5:33 video. Thanks Bruce.)

¶ Short take. “President Barack Obama, speaking at the opening ceremony of the African American Museum in Washington, DC, said: ‘Hopefully, this museum can help us talk to each other, and more importantly listen to each other, and most importantly see each other.’
        “Biblically speaking, seeing is different from looking. To see is to bond. More than curiosity, more than gathering an inventory of interesting sights and experiences, to see is to develop a relationship, to become interdependent, to enter the other’s orbit and become subject to its gravitational force.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Learning to see: Why communities of conviction are important”

¶ Of the topics displayed in new African American Museum is this. “Religion and Resistance at the New National Museum of African American History and Culture.” —Anita Litte interview with Rev. Yolanda Pierce, curator of the newly-opened museum, Religion Dispatches

¶ Altar call. “The very first mention of God’s name in Scripture is uttered in the story in Exodus where the Hebrew people cry out because of the misery of their oppression. In the story of the calling of Moses, the text says ‘Then the Lord said, ‘I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings’ (Exodus 3:7). . . . A pattern is set with this narrative: The earth’s cries of distress mobilize the attention of Heaven.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Fear Not! The nonviolent war cry of the People of God”

¶ Benediction. “We are each other's / harvest: / we are each other's / business: / we are each other's / magnitude and bond.” —Gwendolyn Brooks, excerpt from her poem “Paul Robeson”

¶ Recessional. “We are building up a new world /  Builders must be strong.” —Vincent Harding, new lyrics to “We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder,” singing at the Wild Goose Festival

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. “The classical interpretation of Matt 5:38-42 & Luke 6:29-30 suggests two, and only two, possibilities for action in the face of evil: fight or flight. Either we resist evil, or we do not resist it. Jesus seemingly says that we are not to resist it; so, it would appear, he commands us to be docile, inert, compliant, to abandon all desire for justice, to allow the oppressor to walk all over us. ‘Turn the other cheek’ is taken to enjoin becoming a doormat for Jesus, to be trampled without protest. . . . Rather than encourage the oppressed to counteract their oppressors, these revolutionary statements have been transformed into injunctions to collude in one's own despoiling.” —Walter Wink, “Beyond Just War and Pacifism: Jesus’ Nonviolent Way,” the groundbreaking commentary on how “turn the other cheek” (Matthew 5) is a form of creative resistance to injustice

¶ Just for fun. James Brown’s “Greatest Dance Moves” (7:18).

#  #  #

Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “The ‘God-factor’ in our recent election,” a post-election sermon

• "Learning to see: Why communities of conviction are important”

• “Enough of this! Toward a theology of nonviolence”

• “Fear Not! The nonviolent war cry of the People of God”
 
Other features

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

©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  •  2 February 2017  •  No. 107

¶ Processional. Karim Sulayman stood blindfolded on a New York City sidewalk, with a sign saying what his fears were, inviting people to react: “I trust you.” (3:14 video, with Sinead O’Connor’s “In This Heart” song performed by Sulayman)

Above: Apostle Island National Park, Wisconsin

¶ Invocation. “Todos Somos Ilegales (We Are All Illegals),” Residente, Tom Morello & Chad Smith.

¶ Call to worship. “Listen, O people of the Way, and take note. Your ancestors were once illegal aliens. Boat people, all of you, undocumented immigrants. / Strangers we were, with no stake in the Promise; hopeless, helpless, beggarly-born. / Guest worker, day laborer, field hand, dark tan. Stay away from traffic stops—or disappear in a police van. / Strangers we were, with no stake in the Promise; stranded, branded, object of scorn.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Strangers we were,” a litany for worship inspired by Ephesians 2:11-12

¶ Hope-filled news. Pictured at right: Meryem Yildirim, 7, left, sitting on the shoulders of her dad, Fatih, of Schaumburg, and Adin Bendat-Appell, 9, on the shoulders of his dad, Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Apell, of Deerfield, during a protest at O'Hare International Airport on Jan 30, 2017. (Nuccio DiNuzzo / Chicago Tribune) —for more see Vikki Ortiz Healy, “The story behind the viral photo of Muslim and Jewish children protesting at O’Hare,” Chicago Tribune

¶ “WHERE, many have asked these last weeks, do the rhetorical fireballs—the raging suspicion and rabid xenophobia—come from? Barring people from our shores, [Speaker of the House] Paul Ryan reminds us, is ‘not what this country stands for.’ Emma Lazarus would have agreed. But while the demonizing may sound un-American, it happens also to be ur-American [present from the beginning]. Well before Japanese internment camps, before the Know-Nothing Party, before the Alien and Sedition Acts, New England drew its identity from threats to public safety. We manned the nation’s watchtowers before we were even a nation.” —Stacy Schiff, “Anger: An American History,” New York Times

¶ Hymn of praise. “Jubilate Deo” (“Be Joyful to the Lord”) by Giovanni Gabriei, performed by VOCES8.

¶ “The sickness of American politics didn’t begin with Donald Trump, any more than the sickness of the Roman Republic began with Caesar. The erosion of democratic foundations has been underway for decades, and there’s no guarantee that we will ever be able to recover. But if there is any hope of redemption, it will have to begin with a clear recognition of how bad things are. American democracy is very much on the edge.” —Paul Krugman, “How Republics End,” New York Times

Left: Refugees-La Sagrada Familia," Kelly Latimore icon

¶ Helpful perspective on a word thrown about too carelessly. Fascism, in various forms, share one core tenent: “the myth that the nation needs to be, or is about to be, resurrected . . . from the forces of decadence, which, without drastic intervention by the forces of healthy nationalism, threaten to extinguish it for ever.” —Roger Griffin, “Staging the Nation’s Rebirth: The Politics and Aesthetics of Performance in the Context of Fascist Studies” in Library of Social Science: Ideologies of War (Thanks Steve.)

¶ Highly recommended read. “When Fascism Came to America,” The Boeskool. (Thanks Alan.)

¶ “Totalitarianism appeals to the very dangerous emotional needs of people who live in complete isolation and in fear of one another.” —Hannah Arendt, interview in The New York Review of Books, 26 October 1978

¶ “Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power.” —Benito Mussolini, former dictator of Italy and dubbed “the father of Fascism”

¶ President Trump’s 17 cabinet appointees [stuffed with billionaires, CEOs and generals] collectively own more wealth that the bottom one-third of US households combined. —Facebook post by Senator Bernie

¶ There’s “an uncredited New York Times article from 1938 that said, ‘When and if fascism comes to America it will not be labeled ‘made in Germany’; it will not be marked with a swastika; it will not even be called fascism; it will be called, of course, ‘Americanism.’ Americanism. Wrapped in a flag. Waving a cross…” —“When Fascism Comes to America,” The Boeskool

¶ Confession. “The idea of vetting Muslims didn't start with Donald Trump, or even with the 9/11 attacks. It goes back to this country's earliest days. . . . [W]hen colonists sought to unite [what is now the US], Anti-Federalists railed against the Constitution. Nothing in the new document, they fumed, would prevent a Muslim from becoming president.” —Daniel Burke, “America’s long history of ‘vetting’ Muslims,” CNN

¶ “Map of White Supremacy mob violence, 1835-1964. The lynchings and riots to enforce racial superiority in the US. The [interactive] map is part of a website created by a group called Monroe Work Today, which takes its name from an early 20th century sociologist named Monroe Nathan Work, who spent decades compiling data and statistics on lynchings.”

¶ Make no mistake—this is still a thing. “At least 13 Jewish Community Centers [JCC] were evacuated Tuesday, after the third wave of bomb threats this month was made against the religious centers. . . . On Jan. 9, 16 JCCs in nine states received threats. Nine days later, 28 centers in 17 states received threats.” —Nikita Biryukov, NBC News

Left: Signs outside the Victoria Islamic Center a day after a fire destroyed the mosque in Victoria, Tex. Photo by Mohammad Khursheed, Reuters.

¶ Good news. “A [Victoria] Texas mosque that was gutted by fire over the weekend has raised about $900,000 in donations since Saturday to go toward rebuilding, a mosque official said on Monday. . . . Some people have offered to perform carpentry work, lend their trucking services and knit new prayer rugs, while churches and a synagogue have offered space to Muslim members to pray and hold meetings, according to Dr. Shahid Hashmi. ‘Jewish community members walked into my home and gave me a key to the synagogue,’ he said. ‘Churches came and prayed with us, and people brought cash and checks.’” —Christine Hauser, New York Times

¶ Hymn of lamentation. “I come only with my punishment / There comes only my conviction / Running is my fate / In order to deceive the law / Lost in the heart / Of the great Babylon / They call me the Clandestine / 'cause I don't carry any identity papers.” [English translation]. —Manu Chao, “Clandestino”

¶ Short story. The following announcement was made this morning by Kevin Biggs, principal of Theodore Roosevelt High School, Des Moines, Iowa.

        “Please place down your pens or pencils and listen to this announcement. This weekend, much of the world’s attention was focused on an effort by the federal government to impose far-reaching restrictions on the ability of immigrants and refugees to come to the US. From protesters at airports and on the streets to lawyers and judges in courtrooms, there was a swift reaction in support of immigrants and refugees. . . .
        “For our immigrant students, especially those of you who’s home country is Iran, or Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, or Somalia…we are here to support you as this attempt to ban your family from our country is constructed by the federal government. I ask every student to stand by our friends, support them with unwavering love and empathy, and be respectful during this chaotic time. . . .” —read the entire statement (Thanks Sue.)

¶ For more background on the refugee crisis, see last week's "Strangers & aliens: Special issue on immigrants and refugees."

¶ Words of assurance. “Now the Powers of Heaven,” Moscow Sretensky Monastery Choir.

¶ “Books to Help Kids Understand What It’s Like to Be a Refugee,” Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, Brightly. (Thanks Kristin.)

¶ Professing our faith. “America needs more than a strategy to win back some seats for Democrats in 2018. We need a long term plan for a moral movement that links up and fights together for a moral agenda.” —read an edited version of Rev. William Barber’s comments at the Democratic National Committee Future Forum, 27 January 2017 (Thanks Deborah.)

¶ The headline is hype, but the content is stunningly apropos to the moment. “Anheuser-Busch Just Released Their Heartbreaking Super Bowl Ad, You Must Watch This.” (Thanks Connie. Watch this 1:01 video.)

Right: Painting by Solara Shiha, Syrian refugee

¶ The power of self-censoring media. “The Wall Street Journal will stop referring to the countries subject to President Trump's travel ban as “majority-Muslim” nations after Editor in Chief Gerard Baker said that the term, used widely in the media, is ‘very loaded.’ [Baker] recently faced criticism from fellow journalists after he said he would be reluctant to authorize use of the word ‘lie’ to describe false statements made by Trump.” Media mogul and Trump booster Rupert Murdoch owns the Wall Street Journal. —Callum Borchers, Washington Post

¶ When only the blues will do. “Jesus Just Left Chicago,” ZZ Top. (Thanks Randy.)

¶ LOL satire! “Putting the nation on alert against what it has described as a ‘highly credible terrorist threat,’ the FBI announced today that it has uncovered a plot by members of al-Qaeda to sit back and enjoy themselves while the United States collapses of its own accord.” —The Onion

¶ Preach it. “All social groups establish boundaries—whether physical impediments, such as fences or borders, or symbolic and cultural lines, such as language or dietary laws. Such boundaries can be a good thing, especially when they help protect weaker people from domination by stronger people. More often, however, boundaries function . . . to shore up the privileges of the strong against the needs of the weak. It is this latter kind of boundary that characterizes the current US immigration debate.” —Ched Myers, from the introduction to “A House For All Peoples? A Bible Study On Welcoming the Outsider,” reprinted in “Radical Discipleship”

¶ Can’t makes this sh*t up. Among the first executive orders issued by President Trump following his inauguration was one officially declaring the day to be a “National Day of Patriotic Devotion.” —Abby Phillip, Washington Post

¶ 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.” —"By Way of Sorrow," Dar Williams, Lucy Kaplansky and Richard Shindell

¶ The state of our disunion. A quick tour of some lesser-known episodes in US history of immigrant scares, like the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Espionage Act, and Operation Wetback. —Charles Redfern, “A tour of America’s anti-immigrant dark side,” Huffington Post

¶ For the beauty (and intelligence) of the earth. Paul Stamets spent his life exploring fungi and their role in enriching the soil. A remarkable, brief video (2:24). (Thanks Bruce.)

¶ Altar call. “In This Heart,” Sinead O’Connor.

¶ Benediction. Resist, to be sure, but reaction is but one tactic within a larger proactive mission. “If you want to be effective . . . you need a firm center. That’s how you get the steadiness and poise you need to handle all the challenges that come your way. But if your politics is based on a contradiction, and always following a moving target, it will throw you off balance. You’ll feel dizzy, like you’re standing on shaky ground. . . [Don’t be consumed with] what must be prevented. Focus on what must be promoted. Focus on . . . the world you want to create for the future.” —Ira Churnus, “Moving Beyond Resistance,” CommonDreams

¶ Recessional. “Psalm of Life,” Annie Moses Band.

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. “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 Ken Sehested’s “In this law I delight,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 119

Right: Art from the “Syrian Refugee Children Find Comfort in Coping with Their Grief Through Art Therapy,” Anna Gragert, My Modern Met

¶ Just for fun. Tap vs. Irish Dance. Just wow. (Thanks Abigail.)

#  #  #

Featured this week on prayer&politiks

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

• Last week’s column, “Strangers & aliens: Special issue on immigrants and refugees”

• “Strangers we were,” a litany for worship inspired by Ephesians 2:11-12

• “Riff on Isaiah five-eight,” a litany for worship inspired by Isaiah 58

 
Other features

• “Out of the house of slavery,” a Bible study on immigration

• “Strangers and aliens,” a collection of biblical texts relating to immigrants

Left: Art at right from the World Refugee Art Exhibition, facilitated by the Refugee Trauma Recovery in conjunction with Wellesley College, New Zealand.

©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  •  26 January 2017  •  No. 106

¶ Processional. “What good is love and peace on earth? / When it's exclusive? / Where's the truth in the written word? / If no one reads it / A new day dawning / Comes without warning / So don't blink twice / We live in troubled times.” —Green Day, “Troubled Times” (Thanks Michael.)

 

 

Strangers & aliens

Special issue on immigrants and refugees

Introduction. The age of trumphoolery has begun. Our new "America First" president has come out of the gate swinging, with executive orders severely restricting Muslim immigration, threatening deportation of undocumented residents, ordering construction of the Mexican border wall, rescinding a provision that would have lowered the cost of mortgage insurance for lower and middle class home buyers—not to mention declaring the day of his inauguration a “National Day of Patriotic Devotion.”

Right: Greenpeace activists hold an anti-Trump protest as they display a banner reading ‘Resist’ from a construction crane near the White House in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 25, 2017. Photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

        Few things in Scripture are clearer than how “strangers” and “aliens”—immigrants and refugees—are to be treated. It’s time for communities of faith to make this clear and join with other people of conscience to insist on appropriate public policies. —kls

¶ Invocation. “You shall also love the stranger [non-citizen], for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” —Deuteronomy 10:19. See “Strangers and aliens” for a collection of biblical texts relating to immigrants

¶ Call to worship. “Gracious One, who jealously guards the lives of those at every edge, we lift our heavy hearts to your Mercy. We live in a fretful land, anxious over the ebbing away of privilege, fearful that strangers are stealing our birthright, aliens breaching borders, refugees threatening security. Loud, insistent voices demand a return to ‘the rule of law.’ Speak to us of the Rule of your law, the terms of your Reign. Incline our hearts to your command.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “You shall also love the stranger,” a litany for worship using texts on immigrants

¶ “When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien” (Leviticus 19:33).

¶ Good news. “First came the mayors of New York, Chicago and Seattle declaring their cities ‘sanctuaries’ and saying they will protect undocumented immigrants from President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to deport them. Then thousands of students, professors, alumni and others at elite universities signed petitions asking their schools to protect undocumented students from any executive order. Now, religious congregations, including churches and synagogues, are declaring themselves 'sanctuaries' for immigrants fleeing deportation.” —Elizabeth Evans and Yonat Shimron, “ ‘Sanctuary churches’ vow to shelter immigrants from Trump crackdown,” Religion News Service

¶ Hymn of praise. “For the wretched of the earth / There is a flame that never dies. / Even the darkest night will end / And the sun will rise. / They will live again in freedom / In the garden of the Lord. / They will walk behind the plough-share, / They will put away the sword.” —Les Miserables Finale (Thanks Thom.)

¶ “Anne Frank Today Is a Syrian Girl.” In 2005, a volunteer sorting old World War II refugee files in New York City came upon a dramatic discovery.

        “Oh my God,” she said, “this is the Anne Frank file.” Along with the letter were many others by Otto Frank, frantically seeking help to flee Nazi persecution and obtain a visa to America, Britain or Cuba—but getting nowhere because of global indifference to Jewish refugees.

Right: This 1941 cartoon by Dr. Seuss was in reaction to the fact that most Americans opposed Adolph Hitler’s anti-Jew policies while also being opposed to granting safe haven to refugee Jews.

        • The New York Times in 1938 quoted the granddaughter of President Ulysses S. Grant warning about “so-called Jewish refugees” and hinting that they were Communists “coming to this country to join the ranks of those who hate our institutions and want to overthrow them.”
        • President Obama vowed to admit into the US 10,000 Syrian refugees. [The actual total was increased to 12,000.] But that number is less than one-fifth of 1% [.0002] of the total.
        • “‘When the safety of the country is imperiled, it seems fully justifiable to resolve any possible doubts in favor of the country, rather than in favor of the aliens,’ the State Department instructed in 1941.” —Nicholas Kristof, New York Times

¶ Watch this brief clip (4:26) about Emma Lazarus, German-Jewish immigrant, who wrote the inscription on the Statue of Liberty.

¶ Christians only. President Trump’s executive order halting immigration from select Muslim-majority countries “orders the secretary of state and the secretary of homeland security to prioritize those who are persecuted members of religious minorities, effectively ensuring that Christians living in predominantly Muslim countries would be at the top of the list.” —For more, see Julie Hirschfeld Davis, “Trump Blocks Syrian Refugees and Orders Mexico Border Wall To Be Built,” New York Times

Left: A Ku Klux Klan march in the 1920s in Binghamton, New York, then the Klan's state headquarters.

¶ For a summary of the tortured political history of the phrase “America First,” see Lily Rothman’s “The Long History Behind Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ Foreign Policy,” Time.

¶ Confession. “Mother, mother / There's too many of you crying / Brother, brother, brother / There's far too many of you dying / You know we've got to find a way / To bring some lovin' here today.” —Marvin Gaye, “What’s Going On”

¶ "Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be swift to bear witness against . . . those who thrust aside the alien, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts" (Malachi 3:5).

¶ Short story. “Some of you may recall hearing the story of Manuel Jesus Cordova. While sneaking across the border from Mexico, Cordova happened to find a 9-year-old boy, Christopher Buchleitner of Rimrock, Az,, alone and injured in the desert. Christopher and his mom had been in a single-car accident when their van went over a cliff on a remote road in southern Arizona. His mother had been killed, and Christopher went looking for help. Cordova gave the boy his sweater and some chocolate and built a fire to warm the boy. It was that fire that drew the attention of the border patrol. Authorities say Christopher would likely have died had Cordova not stopped to protect him.
        “Cordova was honored for the rescue by US and Mexican officials at a border crossing station. Then he was arrested by federal agents and returned to Mexico.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Out of the house of slavery: A Bible study on immigration”

Right: Sign at the Women's March in Portland, Maine.

¶ “Even as researchers find that the foreign-born commit fewer crimes than their native-born peers, the perception that immigrants are uniquely crime-prone permeates public and political discourse.” —Dianca E. Bersani and Alex R. Piquero, Los Angeles Times (Thanks Billie.)

¶ Words of assurance. “When God imagined me / the Trinity was in harmony / I was no afterthought, no oversight.” — Alana Levandoski “When God Imagined Me” (Thanks Lenora.)

¶ For more analysis and ideas for action

            • Sign the pledge opposing deportations. “As people of faith and people of conscience, we pledge to resist the newly elected administration’s policy proposals to target and deport millions of undocumented immigrants and discriminate against marginalized communities. We will open up our congregations and communities as sanctuary spaces for those targeted by hate, and work alongside our friends, families, and neighbors to ensure the dignity and human rights of all people.”

        • One short video (6:07), using gumballs, to clarify US humanitarian response to global immigration and poverty.

        • To find written resources, a list of local coalitions of groups working on sanctuary, visit the “Sanctuary Not Deportation” website.

        • See this concise summary, “Key points in Trump’s immigration executive orders,” Tal Kopan & Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN

        • “What Trump’s Executive Orders on Immigration Mean for Cities,” Tanvi Misra, citylab

        • “Dear President Trump and Members of Congress. As religious leaders from a variety of backgrounds, we are called by our sacred texts and faith traditions to love our neighbor, accompany the vulnerable, and welcome the sojourner. War, conflict and persecution have forced people to leave their homes, creating more refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced people than at any other time in history. More than 65 million people are currently displaced–the largest number in recorded history.” —Signed by over 800 religious leaders, the Interfaith Immigration Coalition has reopened for signatures its earlier letter. Add your signature.

¶ “Strategies for Hope,” by Rev. William Barber. Best 3 minutes you’ll spend all year. You may remember Barber’s stem-winding speech at the Democratic National Convention. He’s a pastor, head of the NC NAACP and of the Moral Monday Movement. (For the video, scroll down to the second photo.)

¶ This weekend, here in my own modest-sized city (Asheville, NC), more than 120 people from 20 faith communities and eight civic groups are registered for training on providing sanctuary to the undocumented. Ours is not an uncommon story.

¶ Hymn of intercession. “Suddenly it's repression, moratorium on rights / What did they think the politics of panic would invite? / Person in the street shrugs—‘Security comes first’ / But the trouble with normal is it always gets worse.” —Bruce Cockburn, “The Trouble With Normal” (Thanks Thom.)

¶ By the numbers. Cost of Trump’s proposed Mexican border wall. The cost of building such a wall has been estimated at least $12 billion and perhaps $15 billion for a single-layer barrier. Roughly a third of the U.S.-Mexico border is currently blocked by a fence. According to an eight-year-old estimate by the Government Accountability Office, the border fence cost the government $3-$4 million a mile to build. Estimates for additional fencing—in harsher terrain—could surpass $10 million a mile." —“ ‘A Nation Without Borders Is Not a Nation’: Trump Moves Forward With US-Mexico Wall,” Bill Chappell, Tamara Keith & Merrit Kennedy, NPR

¶ Preach it. Listen to Maya Angelou recite her poem, “And Still I Rise.”

¶ Can’t makes this sh*t up. “Our side, the conservative side, needs to reeducate its people that we own the entire [biblical] tradition." —Representative Dave Brat (R-VA), responding to President Obama’s quoting of Scripture during a news conference in response to Republican resistance to accept Syrian refugees. —Jordan Fabian, The Hill

¶ Call to the table. “I was born to endure this kind of weather / When it's you I find like a ghost in my mind / I am defeated and I gladly wear the crown.” —First Aid Kit, “Emmylou”

¶ The state of our disunion. The US contribution to the Syrian refugee resettlement crisis is impressive at $5.1 billion. But if you calculate each contributing nation’s portion on a per capita basis, the US total represents only $16 per person. Norway, on the other hand, contributes $240 per citizen, Germany $32, the UK $26. —Kim Hjelmgaard and Valeria Criscione, USA Today

¶ For the beauty of the earth. Full moon rising over Mt. Victoria Lookout, Willington, New Zealand. (Thanks Paul. 3:45 video, accompanied by Dan Phillipson’s “Tenderness” instrumental)

Left: The Refugee Art Project

¶ “Enter the ladies.” The best biblical-theological commentary I’ve seen about the historic Women’s March on Washington (and 599 other cities in the US and around the world) is that of Rabbi Joanna Samuels, commenting on Exodus 1:8ff, “Then a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.”

¶ Altar call. “You gotta move / You gotta move / You gotta move, child / You gotta move / Oh, when the Lord gets ready / You gotta move.” —Mississippi Fred McDowell, “You Gotta Move”

¶ Benediction. You who were formerly illegal aliens and undocumented workers in Creation’s midst are no longer strangers and aliens, but members of the household of God. (Ephesians 2:19, adapted)

Right: Art on the US-Mexican border wall. Photo by Sarah Strosahl-Kagi. The writing translates the first part of a quote from Frederick Buechner: The resurrection of Jesus signifies that "the worst thing is not the last thing." [The rest of the quote: "It's the next to the last thing. The last thing is the best. It's the power from on high that comes down into the world, that wells up from the rock-bottom worst of the world like a hidden spring."]

¶ Recessional. Japanese jazz band plays “Sing, Sing, Sing.”

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. “I’m really tired of your smells and bells and frills and thrills."
        From the hollow of the Most High thunders the complaint of Heaven against every piety peddler. Good God a’Mighty, when we say our hail marys, our thank-you-jesuses and our god-bless-americas—why don’t you tip your hat and offer a prize?!
        “Your prayer breakfasts don’t cut it, given the way you treat school teachers and ICE-hounded immigrants.” —“Riff on Isaiah five-eight,” a litany for worship inspired by Isaiah 58

¶ Just for fun. Four cellists, one instrument. Wiener Cello Ensemble playing Maurice Revel’s “Bolero.”

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Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “You shall also love the stranger,” a litany for worship, using texts on immigrants

• “Out of the house of slavery,” a Bible study on immigration

• “Strangers and aliens,” a collection of biblical texts relating to immigrants

•“Mamrean encounter: A meditation on the threat of refugees, the burden of strangers and the bounty of God,” a poem

• “Riff on Isaiah five-eight,” a litany for worship inspired by Isaiah 58

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