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Signs of the Times  •  4 August 2016  •  No. 82

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

Above. Perseid meteor shower, photo by Cody Limber, 2013.

¶ Invocation. “Christ is the one whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.” —St. Bonaventure

¶ Call to worship. “Let the weak say I am strong / Let the poor say I am rich / Let the blind say I can see / What the lord has done in me.” —Soweto Gospel Choir, “Hosanna”

¶ “In a gesture of solidarity following the gruesome killing of a French priest, Muslims on Sunday attended Catholic Mass in churches and cathedrals across France and Italy.” —NBC News (1:37)

¶ Hymn of praise. “My grateful heart, so filled with years of living. / Memories flow by me like petals on a stream. / My grateful heart forgives so many sorrows, / Brings peace that lasts forever, / Illuminates the dream.” —Threshold Choir, “My Grateful Heart.”
       The Threshold Choir is a network of some 150 a cappella groups, primarily women’s voices, who mission is to sing for and with those in hospice care.

¶ “The George W. Bush administration embarked on a five-year campaign focusing on voter fraud and managed charges against all of 120 people nationwide. One study found 31 cases of voter impersonation nationwide in elections since 2000. That’s out of more than 1 billion votes cast.” —Asheville Citizen-Times editorial, 2 August 2016

¶ This is amazing. “In the last 10 days, courts have issued six major decisions against GOP-backed voting restrictions in five different states.” —Ari Berman, The Nation

¶ The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision striking down North Carolina’s voter restriction legislation is especially accusative, saying the legislation is marked by “racially discriminatory intent. . . . We cannot ignore the record evidence that, because of race, the legislature enacted one of the largest restrictions of the franchise in modern NC history” and that the law targeted minority voters with “almost surgical precision.” —Asheville Citizen-Times editorial, 2 August 2016

¶ Read about the “Garden of the Righteous” in Tunisia which memorializes Muslims who have risked their lives to save Jews and others from terror.” —Robert Satloff, “How we honor Muslims who stand up to terror”

¶ Confession. “One of the defining features of living in a putatively classless democracy, as has often been observed, is a constant feeling of status anxiety. In the absence of a clearly delineated hierarchy, we determine where we belong by looking above, at those we resent, and below, at those we find contemptible.” —Hua Hsu

¶ St. Isaac the Syrian (aka St. Isaac of Nineveh, at right) was a 7th century monastic and theologian of the inner life and ascetic practice, born in the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula (in what is now Bahrain, where the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet is stationed). Once appointed bishop of Nineveh, he lasted only five months before returning to a hermit life.

¶ Much has been made of the line in Michelle Obama's Democratic National Convention speech about the White House being built by slaves. (Commentator Bill O'Reilly, straight-faced, assured his listeners that these laborers were well-fed and housed at government expense.)
        You can read more about this—and a longer history of racial relations in the US with the White House as the narrative pivot—in Clarence Lusane's The Black History of the White House, including the fact that the day in 1901 after President Theodore Roosevelt had dinner with Booker T. Washington (then deemed the safest of African American leaders because of a shared commitment to segregation) what until then had been the "Executive Mansion" was formally re-named "The White House."

¶ Chances are you heard Rev. William Barber’s speech at the Democratic National Convention. (You can watch it here. 10:43). Word for word, it may have been the most stirring of four days of speeches (excepting, maybe, Khizr Khan’s challenge  to Donald Trump. 6:03.)
        What you may not know is that Barber’s closing refrain, “Revive Us Again,” was a direct quote from the final verse of the 1863 revivalist hymn by W.P. Mackay: “Revive us again; fill each heart with Thy love; May each soul be rekindled with fire from above. Hallelujah thine the glory. . . .”
        This conversionist theme, long a suspect topic in cultured company, reminds me of Dr. King’s persistent refrain—“America, you must be born again”—especially near the end of his career as it became more clear that the structures of injustice went well beyond segregation.

¶ “So, a Muslim-American couple of uncommon valor may play a crucial role in bringing down Donald Trump. God has a great sense of humor.” —Jeffrey Goldberg on Twitter

¶ Of all the overlooked items in this year’s presidential nomination conventions, nothing more threatens the prospect of peace in the world’s most dangerous region that this. “Both Republicans and Democrats Went Backward on Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Now What?” by Sam Bahour and Geoffrey Lewis, Forward.
        The Republican party platform reads, “We reject the false notion that Israel is an occupier.” On the Democratic side, “Clinton supporters rejected an effort to amend the platform which would call for ‘an end to occupations and illegal settlements in Palestinian territories.” Both positions are “out of line with international law and dozens of United Nations resolutions” and “also totally out of sync with US foreign policy.”

¶ “Of the 2,472 delegates at the [Republican National] convention, only 18 of them were black, the lowest percentage in over a century, according to History News Network and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.” —quoted in Bill Moyers & Michael Winship, “Donald Trump’s Dark and Scary Night,” CommonDreams

¶ Urban artscape! Philadelphia’s amazing outdoor murals. —CBS Sunday Morning (5:46. Thanks Abigail.)

Left. Meg Saligman's “Common Threads,” one of many amazing murals in Philadelphia, reflects the links between the past and present and across cultures.

¶ Words of assurance. “Just the Way You Are.” Husband enlists a flash mob to sing to his wife, who has MS, on their wedding anniversary. (Thanks Anne.)

¶ “Americans overestimate the terrorist threat emanating from refugees. When asked to estimate the number of refugees charged with terrorism since 9/11, only 14 percent say it’s fewer than five, while 28 percent estimate it to be 100 or more. The actual number is 3.” —Shibley Telhami, Brookings

¶ There have been 998 mass shootings since Sandy Hook. Only 4 involved Muslims. 998 involved males. But yeah, must be a Muslim problem, not a male violence problem. —Mother Jones

¶ “A new exhibit in Austin, Texas examines a little-known chapter in the state's history, a time when Texas Rangers and white, civilian vigilantes massacred hundreds—if not thousands—of Mexican Americans or Tejanos between 1915 and 1919 in what historians have called some of the worst state-sanctioned racial violence in the US.” —Cindy Casares, Latina (Thanks Charles.)

¶ Hymn of intercession. “All my life I've been waiting for / I've been praying for / For the people to say / That we don't wanna fight no more / There will be no more wars / And our children will play / One day.” —Matisyahu, “One Day”

¶ “The lovely true thing about America even in the age of Trump” by Garrison Keillor is more than worth the effort.

¶ Preach it. An interview on NPR Weekend Edition (24 January16) with Bruce Lisker who at 17 was framed for his mother’s murder and who was exonerated in 2009 after 26 years in prison. When asked about how he negotiates anger, he said:
        “Yeah, that's going to come up, isn't it?  I don't do recrimination, I don't do bitterness, I don't do carrying that around because that would damage me. And I came up with something that I repeat as often as I have a voice: It's impossible to travel the road to peace unless you first cross the bridge of forgiveness. And the only hope of peace and happiness that I have is to, the minute something like that comes up, and it does, forgiveness is not a light switch, it's a dimmer, and somebody keeps sneaking over and turning it up—but you have to be mindful, you have to not go to the fear, not go to the anger, not go to that side but go to the love of yourself, of your family.” —read more of Abigail Hastings’ sermon, “Resilience Mojo for the Bonobo Year”

¶ Legendary jazz and pop singer Sarah Vaughan (left) was honored this year on a “Music Icons” commemorative stamp by the US Postal Service.

¶ Call to the table. “Be my love, for no one else can end this yearning / This need that you and you alone create / Just fill my arms the way you've filled my dreams / The dreams that you inspire with ev'ry sweet desire.” —Sarah Vaughan, "Be My Love"

¶ Best one-liner. “Assuming one is against police when they’re against police brutality is like assuming one is anti-parent when they’re against child abuse.” —Rosemary Jones on Twitter

¶ For the beauty of the earth. Perseid Meteor Shower 2016. (5:03)

¶ “Olympians Without Nations: First-Ever Team of Refugees Heads to Summer Games.” —Christopher Zumski Finke, Yes!
            Syrian refugee Yusra Mardini (right) fled war in her home country in August 2015, and boarded a tiny dinghy in Turkey with 18 other refugees. When the engine stopped working and the dinghy began to take on water, Mardini, her sister and another refugee got into the water and pushed the boat across the Aegean Sea for more than four hours, until they reached Lesbos. In 2012 she represented Syria in the World Swimming Championships. The 18-year-old now lives and trains in Berlin.

¶ Altar call. “Faith steals upon you like dew: some days you wake and it is there. And like dew, it gets burned off in the rising sun of anxieties, ambitions, distractions.” —Christian Wiman, My Bright Abyss

¶ Benediction. “So let us persevere in the pace we have kept, laying aside every fear, looking to our Pioneer, who for the joy set before him disregarded all shame, that every lame and languishing name be ransomed and reclaimed from death’s grievous and groanful domain. —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Faith is contagious,” a litany for worship inspired by Hebrews 11

¶ Recessional. “Windsor’s Toccata,” performed by Olivier Latry. (Thanks Naomi.)

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. “Peace is not the silence of the sepulcher, drowning sad-soul songs of lament. Peace isn’t passive. It’s not always nice or good-natured, cheerful or charming, winsome or quiet or sweet. Prophecy that provokes no crisis, asserting no claim or prompting no offense, is a liturgy deaf to Redemption’s resolve, inflated with pious pretense. —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Peace, peace, but there is no peace,” a litany for worship inspired by Luke 12:49-53 & Jeremiah 6:13-15

“Secret Book” mural (left) by Joshua Sarantitis, located on a building near the Free Library of Philadelphia, conveying the expansion of imagination by reading.

¶ Just for fun. “Air Canada announced this morning that as of 2017, passengers will be required to pay an extra fee to transport any emotional baggage they happen to be carrying with them onto their flight.” —Sophie Kohn, CBC Comedy (Thanks Joe.)

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Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “Faith is contagious,” a litany for worship inspired by Hebrews 11

• “Peace, peace, but there is no peace,” a litany for worship inspired by Luke 12:49-53 & Jeremiah 6:13-15

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

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.

A note from Gerald,
prayer&politiks’ guardian angel

“Signs of the Times” is on vacation this week, but we’ve posted two election reflection pieces you will enjoy.

 

The first, “O Shizzle! Electoral season parable,” is a first-person story about a happenstance conversation across party affiliation lines, “in this age of un-friending, of only seeking news outlets that contribute to opinions we already hold.”

 

The second piece, “Magdalene’s recovery,” compares this week’s history-making election—of a female presidential candidate of a major party—with history of a more ancient sort, as St. Mary Magdalene gets upgraded in the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar.

 

§  §  §

¶ Micah met me for lunch today to debrief on the fabulous reading of Alyson Mead’s “The Quality of Mercy” and talk back we had at Judson last Saturday.

        We are sitting in the lunch-time packed Waverly Restaurant and discussing race, sexism, religious leanings and the systems of institutionalized colonialism that are keeping all of us down and oppressed. And as those of you know me, my side will be colorful and explicit and bold.

        So I am aware that there is what seems to be a family of tourists sitting next to us. After 40 minutes of this focused and lively conversation Micah asks for the check and goes to pay.

        As soon as he does the woman, who is sitting right next to me, taps me on the shoulder and says, “I hope I don't offend you, but I am a conservative Christian from St. Louis here with my family and I could not help but overhear you two talking, and again I don't want to offend you”—and I'm thinking O Shizzle, she's gonna put me on blast for language or my anti-Christian views or our Black Lives Matters talk. —continue reading “O Shizzle! Electoral season parable” by Thom Fogarty and Micah Bucey

§  §  §

¶ Hillary Clinton’s election this week as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee surely knocks another hole in the “glass ceiling” obstructing women’s full inclusion into the human enterprise.

        It should go without saying that the struggle for gender justice is far from over; but every advance should be permitted its celebration—even for those who, like me, maintain profound concerns about Clinton’s entanglement with Wall Street’s domination of our economy along with her militarized foreign policy instincts.

        Let me suggest, though, that an event last week will have longer-term implications for greater mutuality between women and men.

        I did not know until recently that the Roman Catholic Church (in common with the various Orthodox communions) centuries ago set 22 July as remembrance day for St. Mary Magdalene. Just weeks ago, on 10 June in another of Pope Francis’ bold moves, Magdalene’s remembrance day was upgraded from a “memorial” to a “feast” day on the Catholic liturgical calendar.

        This modification may not sound like much to those of us in low-brow communions; but the elevation is actually quite significant in its context and will, very likely, open doors beyond as well. —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Magdalene’s recovery: The church’s first evangelist joins an elite group of saints”

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A note from Gerald,
prayer&politiks' guardian angel.

“Signs of the Times” is on vacation this week.
But two new poems have been posted. (See below.)

 

Turn off (what passes for) the news.
Boycott the season’s electoral charades.
Don’t give in to Pokémon’s promise of
“augmented reality.” Attend instead to
unmitigated reality: bloodied, stricken
and strewn. Offer grief the hearing it
demands, the voice it obliges, and
the risk it assumes.
—continue reading Ken Sehested's "Lamentations' call to arms: A poem inspired by the Book of Lamentations"

 

Signs of the Times  •  13 July 2016  •  No. 81

¶ Processional. “Ella’s Song,” Sweet Honey in the Rock.

¶ Call to worship. “If blood will flow when flesh and steel are one / Drying in the color of the evening sun / Tomorrow's rain will wash the stains away ‘ But something in our minds will always stay ‘ Perhaps this final act was meant / To clinch a lifetime's argument / That nothing comes from violence and nothing ever could.” —Sting, “Fragile,” performed with Yo-Yo Ma, Chris Botti and Dominic Miller (Thanks Garth)

¶ Invocation. “You may write me down in history / with your bitter, twisted lies. / You may trod me in the very dirt, / but still, like dust, I'll rise.” —Maya Angelou, "Still I Rise," National Public Radio (Listen to Angelou reading and/or read the text.)

¶ Good news. “The number of Black farmers in the United States is suddenly growing again. In 2012, there were more than 44,000 of them, up about 15 percent from 10 years earlier.” —Sylvia Harvey, “The Resurgence of Black Farmers," Yes! Magazine

¶ At right, Ieshia Evans, a nurse and mother of two, arrested during the Black Lives Matter demonstration following Alton Stirling's killing by police. Photo by Jonathan Bachman, Reuters. For more information on this photo, see Catherine Thorbecke, “The Story Behind the Striking Photo of a Woman in a Dress Next to Armed Police in Baton Rouge,” ABC News.

¶ "If I love you, I have to make you conscious of things you do not see." —James Baldwin

¶ “‘Put those damn weapons down. I’m not going to tell you again, goddamn it. Get those goddamn weapons down.’  That was the first command of one of Louisiana’s most revered figures, General Russell Honore, when he arrived in New Orleans in 2005 to direct the military recovery after Hurricane Katrina.  The General’s directions have not been followed in Baton Rouge. . . . When [in 2014] Ferguson police showed a militarized response to protestors, General Honore was again plainspoken. ‘Any time we have policemen pointing weapons at American citizens, they need to go through retraining.’”  —Bill Quigley, “Baton Rouge: ‘Put Those Damn Weapons Down,'” Huffington Post

¶ Hymn of praise. “Venite exultemus Domine” (“Come let us praise the Lord”), William Byrd, performed by Quite Cleveland. (Thanks Roy.)

¶ “The [Black Lives Matter] demonstrators didn't block the bridge because they don't care about the law. They blocked it because they still do.” —read more of David Waters’ "A bridge in Memphis becomes a symbol of deep divide, deeper wish to unite," in the Memphis Commercial Appeal, where interim police chief Michael Rallings joined the march which shut down part of Interstate 40

Left, "Our Lady, Mother of Ferguson" by Mark Dukes.

¶ This is amazing! Innocent black man befriends the crooked cop who framed him and sent him to Jail for four years! —CBS News (3:00 video. Thanks Dan.)

¶ Good long read. For those interested in the history of racial discourse, Julian E. Zelizer’s “Fifty Years Ago, the Government Said Black Lives Matter” has a detailed account of the political maneuvering behind the crafting and release of the 1968 Kerner Commission report that sought to analyze the causes of race riots that rocked the nation in the summer of 1967. Zelizer’s article serves as the introduction to Princeton University Press’ 2016 edition of The Kerner Report: The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders.

¶ “I want the Dallas Police Department to see I support you. I defend you. I will care for you. That doesn’t mean I will not fear you. That doesn’t mean that when you approach me, I will not have a visceral reaction and start worrying about my personal safety.” — Parkland Memorial Hospital trauma surgeon Dr. Brian H. Williams, an African American who treated Dallas police officers shot by a sniper on 7 July, recounting his own tense moments from earlier encounters with police, in Elahe Izade, The Washington Post

¶ Hopeful news. “A group of former senior military officials and veterans, including Gens. David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal, have launched a veteran-focused gun law initiative. The initiative, Veterans Coalition for Common Sense, is spearheaded by Capt. Mark Kelly, a former Navy combat pilot and astronaut whose wife, Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz., was the target of an assassination attempt in 2011.” —Alex Horton, Stars and Stripes (Thanks Dan.)

¶ Make America brutal again. Donald Trump’s election campaign comments superimposed over video from lunch counter sit-ins in the 1960s. (It's pretty stark.)

¶ Confession. “When the night has come / And the land is dark / And the moon is the only light we'll see / No I won't be afraid / Oh, I won't be afraid / Just as long as you stand, stand by me.” —Tracy Chapman, “Stand By Me”

¶ We are largely unaware of the conflict and competing demands in our nation between our political and economic values, between democracy and corporate (largely-unregulated) capitalism. Where the former aims at a place for all at the table of bounty, the latter favors a kind of social Darwinism, survival-of-the-fittest logic that brooks no values other than market efficiency. The metric of profit in the former focuses on shared human rights; the latter, on exclusive property rights, rendered vividly with chilling effect on our Republic in the 2010 “Citizens United” Supreme Court decision which bestowed personhood on corporations. —Ken Sehested
        For further analysis, see Mark Blyth, “Capitalism in Crisis,” Foreign Affairs.

¶ Bumper sticker prophecy. “I’ll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one.”

¶ Hymn of lamentation. “Melody from Orpheus and Eurydice,” performed by Dimitry Olevsky, violin, and Harout Senederemian, piano.
        Chaplain Alan Wright “didn’t know what he’d find in the emergency room” after racing to a Dallas hospital on 7 July in response to reports of casualties from sniper fire aimed at police escorting a “Black Lives Matter” march. Two days later he burst into tears during worship while listening to a rendition of Christoph W. Gluck’s “Melody from Orpheus and Eurydice.” (Ironically, in the recording noted above, you can briefly and faintly hear a siren in the background.) —Religion News Service

¶ Words of assurance. “His Eye is on the Sparrow,” a bluesy rendition by Lauryn Hill and Tanya Blount of the traditional revivalist song of the early 20th century.

¶ For the beauty of the earth. 35 seconds of spectacular photos of unusual birds. —“Wonders of the world” (Thanks, Susan.)

¶ Preach it. “Intercessory prayer is spiritual defiance of what is in the name of what God has promised. Intercession visualizes an alternative future to the one apparently fated by the momentum of current forces. Prayer infuses the air of a time yet to be into the suffocating atmosphere of the present. . . . This is the politics of hope. Hope envisages its future and then acts as if that future is now irresistible, thus helping to create the reality for which it longs.” —Walter Wink, The Powers that Be: Theology for a New Millennium. Here’s a link for a longer excerpt on intercessory prayer.

¶ “Put another way, what passes for the news is often enough closer to a horror movie in which, just around the next corner, another nightmare is readying itself to leap out and scare you to death. Maybe it’s not what you really want to see, but once it starts, you can’t take your eyes off it. And that’s the point.” —Tom Engelhardt, TomDisptach

¶ Call to the table. Let yourself be wrapped in “the ties that bind but do not strangle, the lover’s reach which does not entangle, the wing that shadows but never wrangles.” —continue reading Ken’s Sehested’s “Prayers while throwing stuff: Pondering grief from Baghdad to Baton Rouge, Medina to Minneapolis, Dhaka to Dallas”

¶ In a 22 April address at Rice University in Houston, Texas, US Secretary of State John Kerry said “religious communities can play a role in achieving foreign policy goals around the world. Invoking religion in an unusually direct manner, Kerry said understanding the importance of faith is essential in diplomacy and working with religious leaders can help solve complex problems in foreign countries. ‘The more we understand religion and the better able we are as a result to engage religious actors, the more effective our diplomacy will be in advancing the interests and values of our people.’” Early in his term, in 2013, Kerry established an Office of Religion and Global Affairs. —Carol Morello, Washington Post

¶ Altar call. “Give Me Jesus,” Wartburg Choir.

¶ “Cubans weigh in on Obama,” a video (1:42) from AJ+.

¶ A resolution drafted by Ken Sehested in support of continued normalization of diplomatic ties between the US and Cuba was recent approved by the United Church of Christ (UCC) Southern Conference. The statement, “Bring Down the Wall in the Caribbean,” will be forwarded for deliberation at next summer’s biennial General Synod meeting in Baltimore.

¶ A key purpose for this prayer&politiks site involves addressing the confusion surrounding the English word “politics,” commonly used in contradictory ways which confound our notions about spirituality. (If you haven’t read the “what is ‘politiks’?” column, I encourage you to do so.)
        Here is a recent example of this conundrum, in a brief article by a Croatian journalist regarding the European refugee crisis.
        In the first paragraph, Elvis Džafić writes, “The solution needs to be political in order for us to see the end of the suffering of innocent people.”
        However, in the third paragraph he says, “It would be great to see the church speak louder about this crisis and on the behalf of the people who need help instead of politicizing it.”

¶ Benediction. “Happiness is a life nourished by the love and goodness of God that contributes to the flourishing of creation. Even in the face of evil, rejection and suffering, a person who has learned to love well will experience pleasure and satisfaction from being herself—a person built from the loving use of God-given creativity, power and goodness. When that goodness takes up residence in us we realize that we are the living image of God, and that makes us happy.” —Ellen T. Charry, “Happy pursuits: A Christian vision of the good life,” Christian Century

Right. “The Rescuer” by Michael D. O’Brien

¶ Recessional. Ukele Group from Wellington Girls’ College and Wellington College, New Zealand.

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. “All glory to you, Gracious One, who smiles on the earth, restoring the fortunes of our ancestors. / In your presence, the weight of shame is lifted, and we are drenched in pardon. / The cooling of your anger lifts mist into the air, and the fields drink their fill. / Restore us again, Savior and Friend; revive us to the joy of unyielding fidelity and steadfast love.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Justice and peace will kiss”

¶ Just for fun. “Rolling in My Sweet Baby’s Arms,” performed by a who’s-who of award-winning bluegrass musicians, including John Hartford, Del McCoury, Jerry Douglas, Alison Krauss, Stuart Duncan, Tony Rice, Sam Bush, Mark O´Connor.

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Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “Prayers while throwing stuff: Pondering grief from Baghdad to Baton Rouge, Medina to Minneapolis, Dhaka to Dallas”

• “Justice and peace will kiss,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 85

Left: StoryPeople by Brian Andreas

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

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.