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5 November 2015  •  No. 45

Special edition
Quotes on music & singing

¶ Invocation. “How Can I Keep From Singing?” performed by Enya.

¶ “Sing lustily and with good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half-dead, or half asleep; but lift up your voice with strength. Be no more afraid of your voice, nor more ashamed of its being heard.” —John Wesley

¶ “If you can walk, you can dance. If you can talk, you can sing.” —Zimbabwean proverb

¶ In Scripture, mountains sing (Isaiah 49:13), fields rejoice (1 Chronicles 16:32), while rivers (Psalm 98:8) and trees (Isaiah 55:12) clap their hands. But dancing? as these Japanese Maple trees (right), located on the grounds of the Japanese Garden in Portland Oregon.

¶ “Music rots when it gets too far from the dance. Poetry atrophies when it gets too far from music.” —Ezra Pound

¶ “The earth has music for those who listen.” —William Shakespeare

¶ “Be like the bird that, pausing in her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, knowing that she hath wings.” —Victor Hugo

¶ “Learning music by reading about it is like making love by mail.” —Luciano Pavarotti

¶ Call to worship. “Open your mouths, oh people of praise. Unchain your lungs and unleash your lips. Let joyful noise erupt from every muted tongue, thankful hymns from every muffled mouth. Whether big band or bluegrass or rhythm and blues. Polka or hip-hop, bebop or swing. Salsa, Gregorian or adagio for strings..” —Continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Big Band or bluegrass,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 98

¶ “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” —Leonard Bernstein

¶ “The man that hath no music in himself / Nor is not move'd with concord of sweet sounds, / Is fit for treasons , strategems, and spoils; / The motions of his spirit are dull as night, / And his affections dark as Erebus: Let no such man be trusted.” —William Shakespeare

¶ “As we go marching, marching, in the beauty of the day, / A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray / Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses. / For the people hear us singing: bread and roses, bread and roses!” —“Bread and Roses,” labor organizing song inspired by the 1912 textile workers strike in Lawrence, Ma. Watch this 6+ minute video about that strike. Listen to Judy Collins’ rendition of the song.

¶ Prayer of intercession. “Many are the hearts that are weary tonight / Wishing for the war to cease, / Many are the hearts looking for the right / To see the dawn of peace.” —“Tenting Tonight On the Old Campground,” one of the most popular Union camp songs during the Civil War, sung here by the 2nd South Carolina String Band

¶ “May all that has been reduced to noise in you become music again.” —David Teems

¶ Here are a few articles that might be of interest on singing:
        •Singing in a choir among the best mechanisms for human bonding. —Shana Lebowitz
        •“Choir singing improves health, happiness.” —Jacques Launay and Eiluned Pearce
        •“Singing Changes Your Brain” (in a good way). —Stacy Horn

¶ “‘Bring me a musician,’ the Prophet Elisha called. And while the musician played, the power of the Lord came on him.” —2 Kings 3:15

¶ “The one who sings prays twice.” —commonly attributed to St. Augustine

¶ “Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! For God has delivered the life of the needy from the hands of evildoers.” —Jeremiah 20:13

¶ “Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, / Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us; / Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, / Let us march on till victory is won.” —James Weldon Johnson, "Lift Every Voice and Sing" performed here by the tightly-harmonic Wardlaw Brothers rendition

¶ Hymn of praise. “Lord, I lift my eyes to the hills, knowing my help is coming from You.” —“Total Praise” written by Richard Smallwood

¶ “You see the power of music in Alzheimer’s patients who can’t tell you the name of their spouse or children but can instantly sing songs they learned as a child.” —Bob Kauflin

¶ “A person who does not regard [music] as a marvelous creation of God, must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs.” —Martin Luther

¶ “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” ­—Colossians 3:16

¶ “We are children of the hope and the children of the promise. What a privilege to be a peacemaker and follow in [Jesus’] steps. With the sound of his words ringing in our ears: ‘Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world!’ (John 16-33) What else can we do but sing . . . and roll up our sleeves.’” —Noel Moules

¶ Hymn of confession. “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” performed by Paul Robeson.

 ¶ “all which isn’t singing is mere talking.” —e.e. cummings

¶ “Music is everybody’s possession. It’s only publishers who think that people own it.” —John Lennon

¶ “Lay down your weary tune, lay down, / Lay down the song you strum, / And rest yourself 'neath the strength of strings / No voice can hope to hum.” —Bob Dylan. Listen to Darrell Adams’ rendition on Ken Sehested’s “Journey to Iraq” video (8 minutes)

¶ “When such as I cast out remorse / So great a sweetness flows into the breast / We must laugh and we must sing / We are blest by everything / Everything we look upon is blest.” —William Butler Yeats

¶ “Music expresses that which can not be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.”  —Victor Hugo

¶ “The surprise came at the end of a banjo lesson. Cary Fridley, my teacher, began describing the ​work involved in ‘cutting’ her next CD: recruiting musicians, practicing privately, practicing ​together again and again—all in preparation for the final recording session coming up ​the next week.
        ​“‘I get increasingly anxious as we approach the recording,’ she admitted.
        ​“‘Well,’ I asked, ‘what helps you with your anxiety?’
        “Her response was profound beyond her knowing. ‘When I can get to that place within myself and with others where the music is more important than me, then I am not anxious.’” —Mahan Siler, quoting his banjo teacher

¶ Hymn of assurance. “Whispering hope, oh, how welcome thy voice, / Making my heart in its sorrow rejoice,” performed by Willie Nelson

¶ “To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight, / and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings, / and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.” —Wendell Berry

¶ “Man shall not live by bread alone, and what the farmer does I must do. I must feed the people—with my songs." —renowned singer, writer and civil rights activist Paul Robeson, who was blacklisted during the McCarthy era

¶ “Birds Singing and Chirping in Slow Motion with Slowed Down Bird Song” video.

¶ “God respects me when I work, but loves me when I sing.” —Rabindranath Tagore

¶ “Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness and a gaiety and life to everything. It is the essence of order and leads to all that is good, true and beautiful, of which it is the invisible but nevertheless dazzling, passionate and eternal form.”  —Plato

¶ “I keep a bough in my heart that a singing bird may come.” —Chinese proverb

¶ “Do you know that our soul is composed of harmony?” —Leonardo da Vinci

¶ “I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.” —George Eliot

¶ “I live my life in growing orbits / which move out over the things of the world. / Perhaps I can never achieve the last, / but that will be my attempt. / I am circling around God, around the ancient tower, / and I have been circling for a thousand years. / And I still don't know if I am a falcon / or a storm, or a great song.” —Rainer Maria Rilke

¶ “I haven't understood a bar of music in my life, but I've felt it.” —Igor Stravinski

¶ “Please! No more new hymns. What's wrong with the inspiring hymns with which we grew up? When I go to church, it's to worship God, not to be distracted with learning a new hymn. Last Sunday's was particularly unnerving. While the text was good, the tune was quite unsingable and the harmonies were quite discordant.” —The hymn in question was “What a Friend We Have in Jesus," from an 1890 letter to the editor of the Lutheran Witness.

¶ Preach it. “And to be bold, to be brave, it is the thinking that the heart can still be saved, And the darkness can come quick, the danger’s in the anger and in the hanging on to it.” —“Nothing More,” by The Alternate Route, performed here by PS22 Chorus, an elementary school in Graniteville, New York.

¶ People in power are seldom willing to “hear any other music but what is known to please them.” —Colonial Baptist pastor Roger Williams

¶ “Singing, poetry, literature . . . are like the water lilies. The flower blossoms on top of the water, but underneath is a long root that goes to the bottom of the pond. What determines how beautiful that water lily is and how strong it is, is the rich mud at the bottom of that pond. To me, what people stand for represents the roots in the mud at the bottom of the lake.” —Zilphia Horton, co-founder with Miles Horton of Highlander Research and Education Center, which throughout its storied history combined cultural arts with training for social justice organizers

¶ “Prayer is more than something I do. The longer I practice prayer, the more I think it is something that is always happening, like a radio wave that carries music through the air where I tune in to it or not.” —Barbara Brown Taylor

¶ Call to the table. The music of Humpback whales.

¶ “We love to sing, ‘I have decided to follow Jesus,’ but we don't bother looking to see which way he went.” —Frank Stagg

¶ “One violinist can be a master technician who plays a concerto with such flawless technical perfection that the audience is astounded at his dexterity. Another violinist, however, perhaps with less than perfect technical skill, allows the music to be played through her in a way which can transport an audience to experience the music itself rather than simply appreciate a performance. The trust to which Paul calls us is a giving of ourselves to God in a way which allows God to be ‘played’ through our lives in whatever circumstance we encounter.” —M. Robert Mulholland Jr.

¶ “A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.” —Joan Walsh Anglund (and Maya Angelou)

¶ “Each time we sing the Magnificat, we proclaim to each other what sort of God we believe in and especially, as Martin Luther says, how God deals with those of low and high degree. Luther says, we sing it for three reasons: (1) to strengthen our faith, (2) to comfort the lowly, and (3) to terrify the mighty.” —Bonnie Jensen

¶ Considering the text too subversive, in the 1980s the government of Guatemala prohibited the public reading of Mary’s “Magnificat,” her song of praise in Luke 1. Likewise in Chile, under the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

¶ Altar call. “The Beatitudes,” performed performed by Nóirín Ní Riain at the Glenstall Abbey, Ireland.

¶ “The good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.” —Bob Marley

¶ “Inspiration and craft plus time and effort minus fear and doubt multiplied by purpose equals song.” —Ray Wylie Hubbard, country/folk/blues singer, guitarist, songwriter

¶ “I spent time with the matriarch of Southern Gospel music at Fuller Seminary in February. I was not sure what to expect, but we really hit it off. You will love the quote she had for the students who were all into ‘Praise and Worship’ music: ‘Folks, if all you want is climax without commitment, then you are in the world's oldest profession.’” —personal note from Michael Hawn, director of the Sacred Music Program at Perkins School of Theology

¶ “The question for the singer is not, Do you have a voice? but, Do you have a song?” —Don Hustad

¶ “Say 'NO' to peace if what they mean by ‘peace’ is the quiet misery of hunger, the frozen stillness of fears, the silence of broken spirits, the unborn hopes of the oppressed. Tell them that peace is the shouting of children at play, the babble of tongues set free, the thunder of dancing feet, and a voice singing.” —Brian Wren

¶ Closing hymn. “O God of earth and altar, bow down and hear our cry, / Our earthly rulers falter, our people drift and die; / The walls of gold entomb us, the swords of scorn divide; / Take not Thy thunder from us, but take away our pride.” —“O God of Earth and Altar,” lyrics by G.K. Chesterton

¶ “While love is unfashionable / let us live / unfashionably. / Seeing the world / a complex ball / in small hands; / love our blackest garment.
 / Let us be poor / in all but truth, and courage / handed down / by the old / spirits. / Let us be intimate with / ancestral ghosts / and music / of the undead. / While love is dangerous / 
let us walk / bareheaded / beside the Great River. / Let us gather blossoms / under fire.” —Alice Walker

¶ Benediction. “If Thou art near when life is closing / All joyful shall I fall asleep, / Be Thou with me as I awaken, / And claim my soul when I arise,” performed by Charlotte Church.

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Featured this week on prayer&politiks:

•“Big Band or bluegrass,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 98

•“New (and adapted) lyrics for Advent and Christmas hymns”

©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 quotes about music and singing to add to the list above, please offer them in the "comments" section below. If you like what you read, pass this along to your friends.

 

28 October 2015  •  No. 44

¶ Invocation. Malawian home-made instruments and home-grown gospel music. (Thanks, Phillip.)

¶ Call to worship. “We are a people acquainted with grief. In the bonds of this Body none need be embarrassed at the sound of sobbing, of the soul’s aching groan. Here the tear is neither uncommon nor unwelcomed. Here the strong confess their doubts, the fluent run out of words.” —Continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Acquainted with grief,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 42.

Right: Double cap cloud over Mount Ranier, King5 Weather, photo by Jim George.

¶ In case you haven’t figured this out, you can configure your browser to listen to music links in “Signs of the Times” while reading copy at the same time. Call up “Signs of the Times,” then open a second tab with the same link, and switch back and forth as you prefer.

¶ Inspiring story without the sentimental crust. “Thistle Farms [based in Nashville, Tennessee] is a social enterprise of women who have survived prostitution, trafficking and addiction. Thistle Farms houses the bath and body care company, Thistle Stop Café and paper and sewing studios. All proceeds support Thistle Farms and the residential program, Magdalene. —Watch this 4+ minute video.

¶ Great story about a transforming conversation in the midst of the grief of everyday life. —Hannah Greenwald, “An Open Letter from an Israeli to her Muslim Uber Driver” (Thanks, Dick and Dan.)

Left: art by Ricardo Levins Morales, ©RLM Art Studio. "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes." —Marcel Proust

¶ We need such stories (above) however small and personal, to counter the news that our nation’s longest war, in Afghanistan, just got longer with President Obama’s announcement that instead of withdrawing virtually all 10,000 military personnel at the end of 2016, another 4,000 will reinforce that garrison. And an increase from 3,050 to 3,500 soldiers in Iraq. And serious hints the Pentagon may put “boots on the ground” in Syria.

¶ “No one in Washington has yet taken the slightest responsibility for blowing a hole through the Middle East, loosing mayhem across significant swathes of the planet, or helping release the forces that would create the first true terrorist state of modern history; nor has anyone in any official capacity taken responsibility for creating the conditions that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands, possibly a million or more people, turned many in the Greater Middle East into internal or external refugees, destroyed nations, and brought unbelievable pain to countless human beings.” —Tom Engelhardt, “14 Years After 9/11, the War on Terror Is Accomplishing Everything bin Laden Hoped It Would”

¶ Blues praise music. “I am marching every day / I’m meeting trials on my way / Short of blessings, but I’m going on just the same / Folks complaining on every side / Except me, Lord / I’m satisfied.” —Maria Muldaur, “It’s a Blessing” (Thanks, Stan.)

¶ “The world’s richest 1 percent now own more wealth than all of the bottom 99 percent combined. This finding comes from Credit Suisse’s Global Wealth Report for 2015, released last week. Last year, Credit Suisse found the richest 1 percent of adults owned 48% of global wealth. According to the new report, the top 1 percent now hold 50.4% of all the world’s household wealth.” —Nick Galasso, CommonDreams

¶ Quantifiying our economic contradictions.
        •50 million of 243 million American adults are part of the world’s poorest 10% of the global population. At the same time, over 110 million American adults are among the world’s richest 10%.
        •Since the 2009 recession, three-fourths of the estimated $54-$86 trillion in new wealth created in the US went to the wealthiest 10%.
        •Among countries with at least one million adult citizens, only four countries have a greater wealth inequality than the US: Kazakhstan, Libya, Russia and Ukraine. —Paul Bucheit, “New 2015 Weath Data: US Inequality at its Ugliest”

¶ Chic meek. You, too, can march in the upscale poordressing fashion parade with $70 jeans conveniently ripped then patched with plaid fabric, with that head-turning chic meek appeal. (Available through one of those ubiquitous “dear so-and-so or current resident” catalogs.)
        Postal carriers lug some 12 billion of these catalogs to mailboxes in the US every year. Want to “kick the catalogs,” or at least exercise some control? Carbonrally will tell you how.

¶ Big pharma maneuvers. "You likely heard recently that former hedge fund manager-turned-entrepreneur Martin Shkreli’s company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, bought the patent to a drug treating toxoplasmosis, a potentially deadly parasite disease, increasing the per pill cost from $13.50 to $750. (Before being sold several previous times, the Daraorun medication per pill cost was $1.00.)
        "Now San Diego-based Imprimis Pharmaceuticals has announced it would manufacture customized versions of the drug for less than $1.00." —Continue reading Ken Sehested’s essay, “In Greed We Trust: Greedlock and the god of fiduciary responsibility.”

¶ An Economic Policy Institute study revealed that among the 50 companies with the largest number of low-wage employees (the federal poverty level is $11.06 per hour), the average CEO salary is $9.4 million. If you consider a CEO work week at 60 hours, with no vacation, it factors out to a cool $3,012 per hour. —Travis Waldron, thinkprogress

¶ Here’s the link for a 15-question, multiple choice quiz on economic inequality in the US. It’s a great popular education tool. (Thanks, Evelyn.)

¶ This 11-minute, graphically-enticing video commentary from philosopher Slavoj Zizek is a profound challenge to the hope that liberal values of charity, without structural reform, can save us. —“RSA animate”

¶ “Ever-increasing temperatures and unmitigated climate change will worsen global inequality and widen the north-south gap between rich and poor countries, according to a groundbreaking new study published this week in the journal Nature. It will, in effect, create a “Robin Hood in reverse” phenomenon. —Deidre Fulton, CommonDreams

¶ More: good work, if you can find it. Last week we reported that when Oprah Winfrey invested in Weigh Watchers, the stock more than doubled in value, adding $70 million to her net worth in a single day. A few days later we learned that CEOs of the four largest tech companies got a collective one-day income bounce totaling more than $10 billion-with-a-“b” following upbeat earnings reports. —Matt Krantz, USA Today

¶ Speaking of CEOs, the average pension of the 100 largest company execs  averages $49.3 million per annum, or $277,686 a month. Each. (That’s compared to a mere $16,975 per month scale for the Commander in Chief, aka President Obama.) The cumulative total of these top CEOs is equivalent to the retirement savings of 41% of American families. 31% of households have no retirement savings. —Kevin McCoy, USA Today

¶ Your church’s adult study or youth group (or both) should plan to watch and discuss “Inequality for All,” an 89-minute graphically appealing film by Robert Reich. It is revelatory. You can buy it for less than $10.

¶ “Yes, the rich pay more in taxes (because they earn so much more)—but they don't usually pay more as a percentage of their incomes. According to a new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, in 2015 the poorest fifth of Americans will pay on average 10.9% of their income in state and local taxes, the middle fifth will pay 9.4% and the top 1% will average 5.4%. —Bud Meyers, “The Poor Pay More in Taxes”

¶ State of our disunion. “Researchers have repeatedly found that in the US, there is now less economic mobility than in Canada or much of Europe. A child born in the bottom quintile of incomes has on a 4% chance of rising to the top quintile, according to a Pew study.” —Nicholas Kristof, “USA, Land of Limitations?”

¶ What you (and your congregation) can do about income inequality. If you and/or your church have savings of some kind, one of the simplest, safest and most convenient steps you can take (to divert working capital into communities that most need it) is to invest some portion in microlending institutions. For more information about this strategy and its rationale, see the “Resolution on community funding.”  There are numerous firms on the web that specialize in socially-responsible investing, like “Just Money Advisors.”

¶ If I had to recommend one resource on the Bible and economic justice for group study in congregations it would be Ched Myers' The Biblical Vision of Sabbath Economics. The 70-page book offers seven studies of the scriptural views of Jubilee justice and God's Dream of enough for everyone. It "reads the Bible economically in order to read the economy biblically." Now in its eighth printing, this resource is ideal for adult education and study groups. It comes with a companion study guide, Household Practices.

¶ Confession. “Let me ask you one question / Is your money that good / Will it buy you forgiveness / Do you think that it could / I think you will find / When your death takes its toll / All the money you made / Will never buy back your soul.” —Bob Dylan, “Masters of War”

¶ Words of assurance. “In a church where holy people were supposed to be perfect, austere, and forbidding, [St. Teresa] prayed to be delivered from sour saints. An admirer once remarked on her voracious appetite: "For such a holy woman, you sure pack it in." "Listen," Teresa shot back, "when I pray, I pray; when I eat, I eat!" — Mary Luti, speaking of Teresa of Ávila, 16th century Spanish mystic and Carmelite nun

¶ Can’t make this sh*t up. The headline says it all: “Ken stands in as martyred Jesus, Barbie as Virgin Mary.”  —Kamilia Lahrichi, USA Today

¶ “8 Gorgeous National Parks You’ve Never Heard Of,” in National Geographic magazine, as we head toward the centennial of the National Park Service.

¶ Freedom follies (plundering “freedom” language). “We have the right and obligation to protect what others have fought and died for.” —letter to the editor, challenging previous letter writers’ complaints of motorcycle noise

¶ Preach it. “Today, the future of our democracy is threatened. How can "We the People" call American politics back to health at a time when, in the words of Bill Moyers, "we have fallen under the spell of money, faction, and fear"? One answer is close at hand, within everyone's reach.” —Read more of Parker Palmer’s “Five Habits to Heal the Heart of Democracy.” (Thanks, James and Marion.) 

¶ “It is hugely ironic and hugely significant that the one thing on the planet most closely resembling the forgoing conception of the divine is money. It is an invisible, immortal force that surrounds and steers all things, omnipotent and limitless, an ‘invisible hand’ that, it is said, makes the world go ’round.'” —Charles Eisenstein, Sacred Economics

¶ Call to the table. “Khudaya, rahem kar,”  a "Kyrie" from Pakistan, sung in Urdu and English. "Lord have mercy on us. Christ have mercy on us." (Thanks, Michael.)

¶ In case you missed it last week, see the “Good news report from Gerald: The first annual prayer&politiks report.” One way you can support our future: recommend this site to your friends, in whatever social media you use.

¶ Altar call. “Hold on and never give in! Throw all your fears to the wind. Join hands and hearts till the end, and let’s walk.” English translation by Mel Bringle of Pablo Sosa’s tango-flavored “Este Momento en Punto” (“This is the Moment”), sung when Pope Francis’ entrance to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception during his September visit to the US. You can view the musical score and lyrics (original Spanish and Bringle’s English translation) here.

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. “As people of God we are called to a journey. Sometimes we are pilgrims. Sometimes we are refugees. For the pilgrim, there is a choice. For the refugee, there is no choice. For the pilgrim, there is freedom. For the refugee, there is no freedom. The biblical story offers us Ruth, the pilgrim and Naomi, the refugee. Both step into an uncertain future.” —Continue reading Nancy Hastings Sehested’s sermon, “Companions for the Journey: The Ruth and Naomi story.”

¶ Just for fun. Ten-year-old Carson Peters sings and plays (along with mandolin-wizard Ricky Skaggs) Bill Monroe’s “Blue Moon of Kentucky” on the Grand Ole Opry.

¶ Benediction. “Laughter at oneself is always proof that God has healed us in the touchy places.” —Eugenia Price

 

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Featured this week on prayer&politiks:

•“Companions for the journey: The Ruth and Naomi story”

•“Acquainted with grief,” a litany for worship inspired by Psalm 42

•“In Greed We Trust: Greedlock and the god of fiduciary responsibility”

•A new batch of annotated book reviews in the “What are you reading and why?” section

•“Resolution on community funding: Putting a portion of household, congregational and denominational money where our mouths are”

©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.

22 October 2015  •  No. 43

¶ Invocation.  “When hope is aroused—or even the possibility of that hope’s approach—the body, of it’s own accord, fills with a reservoir of bated breath, as though preparing for the shouts of joy and happiness, victory and triumph, that are sure to come, no longer checked by the dams of possibility and doubt shored with the black mortar of cynicism.” —continue reading “When hope is aroused” by “Ghost,” a maximum security prisoner

Photo by Peggy Coleman. See more of her award-winning photography.

¶ Call to worship. “No greater love hath any than to yield / Privilege and pow’r to welcome and to shield / The least, the lost, the whole creation healed / Alleluia! Alleluia!” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s new hymn lyrics to “For All the Saints”

¶ Good news. “Can a shared love of hummus bring Jews and Arabs together? An Israeli restaurant near the coastal city of Netanya is offering 50% discounts on hummus for tables with both Jews and Arabs. A manager of the Hummus Bar, located in Kfar Vitkin, told the Times of Israel that “several” tables of Jews and Arabs have taken advantage of the offer since it began Oct. 13. “By us we don’t have Arabs! But we also don’t have Jews … By us we’ve got human beings!” the restaurant posted on Facebook. “And real excellent Arab hummus! And great Jewish falafel!” —Jewish Telegraphic Agency  (Thanks, Ivan.)

¶ Hymn of praise. There’ll be “Joy in the Morning,” Mississippi All-State Youth Choir & Orchestra.  (Thanks, Marti.)

¶ Syria’s multiplex civil war. If you could use some help understanding the bloody, convoluted war happening inside and outside of Syria's borders, watch “Syria’s War: A five-minute history” (5+ minutes) by Ezra Klein. 

¶ Harriet Tubman wins vote to replace Andrew Jackson on $20 bill. “Women on 20s,” a group that has been campaigning to replace Jackson with a woman has chosen Harriet Tubman, the 19th century abolitionist who escaped slavery and led other slaves to freedom via the ‘Underground Railroad.’ The group tallied more than 600,000 online votes over the last few months, narrowing a long list to 4 finalists: Tubman, the late first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, whose act of defiance sparked the Montgomery bus boycotts of the ‘60s, and Wilma Mankiller, the first female chief of the Cherokee nation. Tubman was announced the winner Tuesday.” —KPIX CBS San Francisco Bay Area (Thanks, Beth.)

¶ Says God: “I know I should stop appearing in Republicans’ dreams and saying ‘I command thee to run for President!’ but dammit, it’s so friggin’ fun.’” —line from David Javerbaum’s play, “An Act of God,” with God played by Jim Parsons, reported in The Christian Century

¶ Can’t say I’m a ballet buff, but even lowbrow artistic tastes bow in awe at the sight of legendary Russian Ballerina Pliseţkaia Maia’s performance (3+ minutes). Maia died last week at the age of 89 years. The music is Camille Saint-Saëns’ “The Swan” from his “The Carnival of the Animals” ballet.

¶ Intercession. “Even with darkness sealing us in, / We breathe Your name, / And through all the days that follow so fast, / We trust in You; / Endless Your grace, O endless Your grace, / Beyond all mortal dream.” —Stephen Paulus' majestic "Pilgrim's Hymn" from his “The Three Hermits” opera, lyrics by Michael Dennis Browne, adapted from a Russian Orthodox prayer, sung here by the Minnesota-based ensemble Kantorei

¶ The painting at right is one of my wife’s treasures from her years as a prison chaplain. This is a self portrait by “Boots” (with a text from the Psalms superimposed), one of her former parishioners. It’s painted on a t-shirt—from back in the day when maximum security prisons allowed inmates access to a few art supplies. No more, at least in our state. In fact, that prison, home to over 700 inmates, is being turned into a “lock-down unit,” solitary confinement for all.

¶ SOLITARY CONFINEMENT: aka “the hole,” “the hotbox,” “lockdown,” “punk city,” “SCU (Solitary Confinement Unit),” "AdSeg" (Administrative Segregation), the "SHU" (pronounced "shoe,” acronym for "special housing unit" or "security housing unit"), "the pound,” "the cooler."
        A few facts:
        • Some 80,000 prisoners in the US are housed in solitary confinement on any given day, living 22-23 hours in a sparse cell the size of a parking space, with virtually no human interaction and where the lights never go out.
        • The first prison records of harmful effects of solitary confinement come from late 19th century Denmark, where staff “noticed inmates were exhibiting signs of mental illnesses while in isolation, revealing that this persistent problem has been around for decades.”
        •Use of solitary confinement was largely discontinued in the United States in 1890 when the Supreme Court ruled that it led to mental deterioration and resulted in no rehabilitation of those incarcerated. The practice was re-implemented in the 1980s and 1990s as part of the get-tough-on-crime political agenda.
        •“In a 2003 report, Human Rights Watch estimated, based on available state data, that one-third to one-half of those held in isolation had some form of mental illness.” —Solitary Watch
        • In July President Obama became the first president to visit a federal prison. While at El Reno Federal Penitentiary in Oklahoma he questioned whether “we really think it makes sense to lock so many people alone in tiny cells for 23 hours a day, sometimes for months or even years at a time.”
        •“The Supreme Court declined Tuesday [13 October] to decide whether states' use of solitary confinement for prisoners on death row is constitutional, putting off a major test of the 8th Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The justices denied the case at least in part because of the execution of the original plaintiff, Alfredo Prieto, who was given a lethal injection October 1 by the state of Virginia before the high court could rule on his final stay application.” —Richard Wolf, USA Today

¶ “[Solitary confinement] units are virtual incubators of psychoses–seeding illness in otherwise healthy inmates and exacerbating illness in those already suffering from mental infirmities.” —Federal Judge William Wayne Justice, Ruiz v Johnson, 154 F.Supp.2d 975 (S.D.Tex.2001)

¶ “A general consensus has emerged among politicians, academics and prison officials that something is seriously wrong with the way we isolate tens of thousands of prisoners in solitary confinement.” —Terrence McCoy, Washington Post

¶ “In June of 2006 a bipartisan national task force, the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons called for ending long-term isolation of prisoners. Beyond about ten days, the report noted, practically no benefits can be found and the harm is clear.” —Atule Gawande, “Hellhole,” The New Yorker magazine

¶ Ironically, Pennsylvania’s early Quaker leaders are credited with the initial experiments in solitary confinement for convicted criminals. (It’s note quite that simple.) Hint: the word “penitentiary” stems from the word “penitent.” It was thought that forced “solitude” would encourage repentance leading to positive social behavior.

At right: A prisoner, in his cell, kneeling at prayer before the central inspection tower.  N. Harou-Romain, Plan for a penitentiary, 1840. From: Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish.]

¶ “We no longer seem to have faith in the ‘penitent’ part of ‘penitentiary,’ and our ‘corrections’ system no longer ‘corrects’ anti-social behavior but inevitably breeds it." —Brook Shelby Biggs, “Solitary Confinement: A Brief History”

¶ “There are 10 times more mentally ill Americans in prisons and jails than in state psychiatric hospitals.” —“The Treatment of Persons With Mental Illness in Prisons and Jails”

¶ Solitary Watch has a 4-page “FAQ” (frequently asked questions) summary background on solitary confinement. Also see “Solitary Fact Sheet.”

¶ Confession. “Can’t Find My Way Home,” Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood.

¶ Words of assurance. “The thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between Grace and Karma. . . . Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions. . . .  I’d be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge. I’d be in deep shit.” —Bono, excerpts from “Bono on Bono: Conversations with Michka Assayas”

¶ Bumper sticker seen. “She who laughs, lasts.”

¶ Good work, if you can find it. This week when Oprah Winfrey bought 6.4 million shares of Weigh Watchers, the stock price more than doubled in value, adding $70 million to her net worth in a single day.

¶ “Nothing sucks more about prison than missing the people who own beachfront property in your heart.” —“Ghost,” a maximum security prisoner, in a letter to his former chaplain after transferring to another facility

¶ “Super-PACS may be bad for America, but they’re very good for CBS.” —CBS CEO Les Moonves, March 10, 2012, at an entertainment law conference at the University of California in Los Angeles

¶ Preach it. “The world is waiting for new saints, ecstatic men and women who are so deeply rooted in the love of God that they are free to imagine a new international order. . . . Most people despair that [it] is possible. They cling to old ways and prefer the security of their misery to the insecurity of their joy. But the few who dare to sing a new song of peace are the new St. Francises of our time, offering a glimpse of a new order that is being born out of the ruin of the old.” —Henri Nouwen

¶ Just for fun. Robert DiNiro playing a Homeland Security spokesperson in a press briefing.

¶ Not so much fun. In a speech to the World Zionist Congress on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed a Palestinian for the Holocaust. —William Booth, Washington Post

¶ Call to the table. “Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage: anger at the way things are and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.” —St. Augustine

¶ Altar call. “Everyone thinks forgiveness is a lovely idea until he has something to forgive.” —C.S. Lewis

At right: Art by behappy.me.

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next (All Saints Day). “The saints of old don’t wear golden crowns, or sit on lofty perch, mouthing caustic comments on how poorly we yet-mortal souls measure up to the glory of days past. They, too, knew about keeping hope alive while getting dinner on the table, faucets fixed, carpools covered, and budgets balanced.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “All Saints Day” litany

¶ Closing hymn. Let yourself be carried by Samuel Barber’s “Agnus Dei Op. 11” while you ponder the benediction below.

¶ Benediction. "What is hope? It is the presentiment that imagination is more real and reality less real than it looks. It is the hunch that the overwhelming brutality of facts that oppress and repress are not the last word. It is the suspicion that reality is more complex than realism wants us to believe; that the frontiers of the possible are not determined by the limits of the actual; and that, in a miraculous and unexpected way, life is preparing the creative events which will open the way to freedom and resurrection.” —Brazilian theologian Rubem Alves

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Featured this week on prayer&politiks:

•“Beatitudes,” a litany for worship inspired by Matthew 5:1-12 (can also be sung to the Pat Wictor tune, "Love Is the Water")

•“All Saints Day,” a litany for worship

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

•“Hallowed Week,” a call to worship for All Hallow’s Eve and All Saints Day,” by Abigail Hastings

EXTRA Good news!  A note from Gerald, prayer&politiks’ guardian angel and synod convener.
       The advisory synod overseeing the vision and mission of prayer&politiks has heartily recommended another year of work. —Continue reading prayer&politiks’ first annual report, including a summary of the recent reader survey.

©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.

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