Health Care - What Would Jesus Think

As the House and the Senate send their health care bills to reconciliation in January the Public Option may be in danger of being dropped from the final bill. The current Public Option is weaker than the original proposal but is at least better than nothing; perhaps a starting point.

I discovered the following video clip on You Tube. Perhaps you would like to watch it and then contact your Representative and Senators and encourage them to support the Public Option portion in what ever way they are able.

To view the video go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZfU8GcdSKI/

Peacemakers …children of God

"…the qualities of a growing Christian peace movement in Australia that reflects the disarming grace we find in Jesus. A movement that realises that peacemakers are called "children of God" because they reflect God's burning desire for healing justice. Our God is a peacemaker and the costly love seen on Calvary proclaims: "There is no way to peace — peace is the way."

To see the first part of this quote and the blog it comes from go to: http://blog.sojo.net/2009/12/29/an-activism-that-loves-its-enemies/ taken from God's Politics blogs on Sojuners web site.

Mary’s Magnificat

From " God's politics a blog by Jim Wallis & friends"

Preaching the Whole Magnificat

by Nadia Bolz-Weber 12-22-2009

Again this Wednesday we joined the broader church in singing vespers, the evening prayer which always includes Mary's song, the Magnificat.  We joined Christ's church and Christ's mother in singing about the wondrous things God has done in blessing us and in casting the mighty from their thrones and in feeding the hungry and sending the rich away empty.

Some of you know that the church I went to in High School, and where my parents still attend, is a very theologically and socially conservative congregation in Centennial.  It's, suburban, white, very upper middle class, and privileged.  Very privileged.  Well a few years ago,  over 10 years after becoming a Lutheran and singing the Magnificat in Vespers countless times and really loving how radical it was, I visited my parent's church and was amazed to see in the worship folder that the closing song was the Magnificat.

Continued at http://blog.sojo.net/2009/12/22/preaching-the-whole-magnificat/?continue

 

Progressive Social Reforms

From God's Politics a blog by Jim Wallis & friends from the Sojourners web site.

What Do Health-Care Reform, the 40-Hour Work Week, Unemployment Insurance, the Minimum Wage, etc., Have in Common?

by Chuck Gutenson 11-25-2009

Well, they were all brought to you be political progressives, they were all opposed by political conservatives, and they all are now viewed as fundamental presuppositions of a healthy society by virtually everyone. Okay, all but health-care reform, but trust me, if it passes, in no time at all it will be viewed so positively that we will no longer be able to remember why it took us so long to implement it. And, of course, the list actually includes many, many more initiatives—child labor laws, basic workplace safety rules, social security, Medicare, and so on.

In each case, the vast majority of political conservatives opposed them. They told us that businesses would be ruined, that the problems resulting from implementing the initiatives would be worse than if we left things as they were, that implementing them would make us non-competitive, or, more generally, that the good life as we know it would be gone if we were so foolish as to pass these pieces of legislation. One would think that after being wrong sooo many times, political conservatives would speak with a bit more humility, but alas, not so. If one took some of the speeches in opposition to health-care reform, one could substitute "minimum wage laws" or "child labor laws" in place of "health-care reform" and it would be déjà vu all over again—to quote Yogi Berra.

For the balance of the blog go to: http://blog.sojo.net/2009/11/25/what-do-health-care-reform-the-40-hour-work-week-unemployment-insurance-the-minimum-wage-etc-have-in-common/?continue

Reflections on the execution of D.C. sniper

Reflections on the execution of D.C. sniper

By LEONARD PITTS, JR.

lpitts@MiamiHerald.com

They killed a killer last week.

I kept waiting to feel something when news came that John Allen Muhammad had been executed in Virginia. As a staunch opponent of capital punishment, I wanted some nugget of remorse at the knowledge that the government had taken his life.

But Muhammad's 2002 sniper attacks hit close to home. He terrorized millions of people in the greater Washington, D.C., area, where I live, made us fear to gas up our cars, walk in parking lots, wait on buses, made my grandson scared to go trick-or-treating, even wounded a friend of my youngest son.

So I could not manage remorse. Indeed, what I felt was an unsettling, appalling satisfaction that Muhammad is no longer in the world. I still remember the last time an execution caused my emotions to so thoroughly misalign with my convictions: it was in 2001, when Timothy McVeigh was put to death.

When I argue against the death penalty, I tend to lean on a few salient points: it is far costlier than life imprisonment; it is biased by class, race and gender; it is irreversible in the event of error. I use those arguments because there is ample statistical evidence to back them up, and because they are irrefutable.

But I have one other problem with the death penalty: it's wrong. It debases us. The power of life and death is too awesome to be left in human hands. And here, I know, the abortion opponent wonders how I can square that with support for abortion rights. The answer is simple: I can't

To read the rest of the article go to: http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/1333085.html

Episcopal Church Rallies for Health Care Reform

Washington prayer vigil rallies Senate support for affordable health care reform

(From Episcopal Life On Line)

By Lynette Wilson, November 19, 2009

[Episcopal News Service] Shortly before Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid held a press conference Nov. 19 to celebrate the long-awaited health reform legislation unveiled Nov. 18, pastors and lay leaders from states with senators whose votes are seen as crucial to the outcome of reform gathered outside the Capitol Building to pray for continued progress on legislation to extend affordable coverage to families.

"Today we mark another key moment in this historic debate for families," said Rev. Claudia Hollinger, a deacon at St. Jude's Episcopal Church and clergy leader with Flint Area Congregations Together in Flint, Michigan. "The legislation that Senator Reid announced would extend coverage to 31 million, ban insurance companies from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions, and help small businesses deal with rising health care costs, all while reducing the deficit by $127 billion. The bill is not perfect and we still have work to do to make coverage affordable to all families, but it is an important step forward."

To read the balance of this article go to: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_117092_ENG_HTM.htm

Karen Armstrong Builds A Case For God

In a recent interview of Karen Armstrong by Terry Gross on National Public Radio Ms Armstrong talks about her concepts of God and religion. Her comments are thought provoking and, some would say, controversial. If, however, one is willing to approach her concepts with an open mind (to use a current popular phrase and think outside the box) the interview is well worth reading, or listening to if you link to the audio version. The transcript can be accessed by going to http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112968197.

I would suggest getting in a quiet place, alone if possible to listen to and think (meditate?) about what is contained in this transcript. As waitresses all seem to say after they have served you a meal, "Enjoy!"

Matthew 25 and Health-Care

This article was taken from the Sojourners web site from the "God's Politics" a blog by Jim Wallis & friends.

Judgement Day: Does Matthew 25 Apply to the Health-Care Debate?

by Valerie Elverton Dixon 09-03-2009

Yesterday, I heard a Christian leader say that the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 25 is not a reason for Christians to support universal health care guaranteed by their government. His argument was that this text is Jesus' instruction to the Christian community for the Christian community. This sounded like an error of interpretation to me.

I read the biblical text through the lens of ethics. I am not a biblical scholar. So, this morning, I called my friend and colleague Allen Callahan to ask him about this interpretation of Matthew 25. Dr. Callahan is an ordained Baptist minister, educated at Princeton and Harvard. He has taught New Testament at Harvard Divinity School, Macalester College and now at Seminario Teologico Batista do Nordeste in Bahia, Brazil. He is an international lecturer and has appeared in television documentaries about the early church, and about politics and spirituality.

Read the balance of this article at http://blog.sojo.net/2009/09/03/judgement-day-does-matthew-25-apply-to-the-health-care-debate/

Dr. Valerie Elverton Dixon is an independent scholar who publishes lectures and essays at JustPeaceTheory.com. She received her Ph.D. in religion and society from Temple University and taught Christian ethics at United Theological Seminary and Andover Newton Theological School.

For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.

_ Addressing Democratic National Convention, August 1980. (Sen. Ted Kennedy)

The above quote from Sen. Kennedy, taken from the Huffington Post,takes on new meaning because Sen. Kennedy's "campaign" has "come to an end" but it is as true now as it was in 1980; for "... the work goes on ... the dream shall never die."

Arianna Huffington: Ted Kennedy and the Missing National Conversation

Arianna Huffington: Ted Kennedy and the Missing National Conversation

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Lost and Found Dog Saves Life of Boy with Down Syndrome - Paw Nation

Here is a heart warming story for you. I hope you enjoy reading it. Click on the underlined link to go to the story that was originally posted on AOL.
Lost and Found Dog Saves Life of Boy with Down Syndrome - Paw Nation

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The Family by Jeff Sharlet

This review is taken from the goodreads.com web site. The book The Family by Jeff Sharlet first came to my attention on the Rachel Maddow's Show. Both the show and the review listed below are favorable toward the book as are other reviews on the goodreads site. There is,however, one lengthy review by a user of the site that is unfavorable toward the book and the author. His opinion does appear to be a minority view. This will be added to my must read list at goodreads.

A journalist's penetrating look at the untold story of christian fundamentalism's most elite organization, a self-described invisible network dedicated to a religion of power for the powerful

They are the Family—fundamentalism's avant-garde, waging spiritual war in the halls of American power and around the globe. They consider themselves the new chosen—congressmen, generals, and foreign dictators who meet in confidential cells, to pray and plan for a "leadership led by God," to be won not by force but through "quiet diplomacy." Their base is a leafy estate overlooking the Potomac in Arlington, Virginia, and Jeff Sharlet is the only journalist to have reported from inside its walls.

The Family is about the other half of American fundamentalist power—not its angry masses, but its sophisticated elites. Sharlet follows the story back to Abraham Vereide, an immigrant preacher who in 1935 organized a small group of businessmen sympathetic to European fascism, fusing the far right with his own polite but authoritarian faith. From that core, Vereide built an international network of fundamentalists who spoke the language of establishment power, a "family" that thrives to this day. In public, they host Prayer Breakfasts; in private, they preach a gospel of "biblical capitalism," military might, and American empire. Citing Hitler, Lenin, and Mao as leadership models, the Family's current leader, Doug Coe, declares, "We work with power where we can, build new power where we can't."

Sharlet's discoveries dramatically challenge conventional wisdom about American fundamentalism, revealing its crucial role in the unraveling of the New Deal, the waging of the cold war, and the no-holds-barred economics of globalization. The question Sharlet believes we must ask is not "What do fundamentalists want?" but "What have they already done?"

Part history, part investigative journalism, The Family is a compelling account of how fundamentalism came to be interwoven with American power, a story that stretches from the religious revivals that have shaken this nation from its beginning to fundamentalism's new frontiers. No other book about the right has exposed the Family or revealed its far-reaching impact on democracy, and no future reckoning of American fundamentalism will be able to ignore it.

God and Universal Health Care

This opinion piece appeared in The Forum on the op-ed page of USA Today on Monday July 27, 2009. I agree with Oliver Thomas' premise that God would support universal health care. Jesus said that the place to find him was among the poor and, as Mr. Thomas suggests, much of the New Testament deals with Jesus' compassion for the poor. Those conservative Christians (often but not always Republicans) who would support the basic idea WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) seem to object to Universal Health Care that would benefit the poor. Although a single payer option would be best; the public option is at least a step in the right direction.

So what can an individual do? The usual and obvious answer is contact your representatives in Congress. Do it, that also is a start.

Would God back universal health care?

Religious texts give us a good idea. The common theme: Don't turn your back on the needy.

By Oliver Thomas

Mixing church and state might be inexcusable, but the influence of religion on our political views is inevitable. Accordingly, the First Amendment does not prohibit laws that reflect our religious values as long as those laws have a secular purpose and effect. So it is curious that, until recently, little has been written about the moral dimension of the health care debate. The focus has largely been on how to pay for insuring 46 million uninsured people in America and whether to provide a so-called public option. At last, religious leaders are stepping forward to explain what our Scriptures and religious traditions have to teach us about the most important domestic policy issue to come before the Congress in recent years.

The answer, it turns out, is a lot. Not directly, of course. Our Scriptures were written long before talk of deductibles, pre-existing conditions and single payers. But indirectly, the Christian, Hebrew and Muslim texts have much to say about the quality, availability and affordability of health care.

(Illustration by Web Bryant, USA TODAY)

Where we are now

Let's start with the current arrangement. Unless you qualify for Medicaid or Medicare, health care in America is rationed based upon income and prior medical history. If you aren't part of a group health plan and can't afford or don't qualify for private insurance because of a pre-existing condition, you're sunk — condemned to a life of no health care or, at best, substandard health care. We've all heard the heart-wrenching stories of Americans who are forced to choose between food and medicine or who die because they could not afford surgery.

Here's where the Bible comes in.

Perhaps the truest thing I can say about the God of the Bible is that he is for the poor. Not just a little. God appears to be for the poor in a way that he is for no other. Because a disproportionately high number of the uninsured are low-income, knowledge of this simple fact is critical to our views on health care reform. And please don't take my word for it. The Hebrew Scriptures command that a certain amount of farm produce be left behind for the poor, forbid interest from being charged on loans and forgive the debts of people at seven-year intervals.

In ancient Israel's agrarian society, even the land itself was to be returned to its original owners every 49 years so that a family's underlying source of income could be protected and sustained. While some Christians conclude that the infamous cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because of their militant homosexuality, I think the Bible reports otherwise. Instead, Ezekiel 16:48-49 suggests that it was because they neglected to care for the needy.

Such "care" extends to health care. The legendary Jewish scholar and physician Maimonides listed health care first on his list of services that a city should offer its residents. According to Rabbi David Saperstein (described by Newsweek as the most influential rabbi in America), the ancient Jewish commitment to provide health care to all God's children stems from the Torah's teaching that an individual human life is of infinite value. "A little lower than the angels," as the Psalmist puts it. Quoting Leviticus, Saperstein says, "We are constantly commanded not to stand idly by the blood of our neighbors."

Christians find similar teachings in the New Testament. One of Jesus' most famous parables is about health care. A Samaritan traveler happens upon a seriously wounded man lying by the side of the road. The Samaritan attends to the man, dresses his wounds and pays a substantial sum for his care and recovery. Jesus ends the story by telling his hearers to "go and do likewise." At the end of his earthly ministry, Jesus adds final instruction to those who might have lingering doubts about their responsibilities to their uninsured neighbors: "Love one another as I have loved you."

So tell me, do you suppose Jesus would make a person choose between food and medicine?

For Muslims, the Holy Quran contains multiple admonitions to attend to the needy. One of the prophet Mohammed's sayings, in particular, bears mention: "When a believer visits a sick believer at dawn, 70,000 angels keep on praying for him until dusk. If he visits him in the evening, 70,000 angels keep praying for him until morning, and he will have reaped rewards in paradise." Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf tells me that if merely "visiting" the sick provides this kind of blessing, providing actual medical care especially if the person is poor would engender even greater rewards.

What about the how?

While our various holy texts instruct us about who should receive health care (i.e. everyone), and our common religious teaching to "do unto others as we would have them do unto us" suggests that the quality of medical service should not be compromised because of age or income, our scriptures do not instruct us about how we should go about accomplishing the task.

Some faith communities, such as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, have elaborate social welfare systems that may include funds for medical costs. Others may band together to provide free clinics for the uninsured of all faiths as some doctors have done. Some members of Congress are proposing "health care cooperatives" as one means of expanding coverage, and some states have gotten ahead of the federal government and are finding ways to cover their own citizens. However we choose to do it, the moral imperative is the same: high quality, affordable health care for everyone.

The Rev. Jim Wallis, a Christian activist and founder of Sojourners magazine, has warned that there is one additional role clergy will be playing in the upcoming debate: helping us get at the truth. "Lying is not allowed here," he says. No doubt Wallis remembers the rancorous 1993-94 health care debate with its infamous Harry and Louise ads. But this time, things feel different. Doctors, hospitals, drug makers and insurance companies are at the negotiating table. Even Wal-Mart is running ads advocating employer-mandated coverage.

Nevertheless, Cigna insurance executive turned whistle-blower Wendell Potter testified recently that the insurance industry fearing competition is engaged in a campaign to scare Americans away from any sort of public plan.

In truth, says Potter, America's nearly half-century-old Medicare program has proved itself an efficient choice. Administrative costs of Medicare? Less than 5%. Of the private plans? Closer to 20%, according to Potter.

Jesus admonished his disciples to be as innocent as doves, but he also warned them to be "as wise as serpents." Let's hope Congress can be the same.

Oliver Thomas is a minister, lawyer and author of 10 Things Your Minister Wants to Tell You (But Can't Because He Needs the Job).

Posted at 12:16 AM/ET, July 27, 2009 in On religion column Permalink

Health Care Inaccurate E-mail

This post comes from "God's politics a blog by Jim Wallis & friends" a blog on Sojourners magazine web site.

Stop this Malicious E-mail

by LaVonne Neff 07-15-2009

An e-mail is circulating that, like most scary e-mails, is entirely false. According to this e-mail, people over 59 can't get heart surgery in England (actually, they can and they do). The e-mail implies that Natasha Richardson's death was due to failures in Canada's health care system (actually, they responded very quickly once the family allowed them to). It says that President Obama wants our system to be based on Canada's and England's (actually, he doesn't). It likens the president's health care plans to signing "senior death warrants."

And that's only for starters. It is hard to find a single fact in the e-mail. Even quotations are attributed to the wrong people. You can read the e-mail and a thoroughly researched response at the FactCheck Web site, and I hope you will.

Please, whether you love or hate the health care proposals now being discussed, check out the facts before ever passing on an e-mail. Any e-mail. Especially if it, like this one, says, "Please use the power of the internet to get this message out." E-mails that beg to be passed on are always annoying, usually false, and often malicious. This one is all three.

LaVonne Neff is an editor, writer, and publishing consultant in Wheaton, Illinois, who blogs on book, bodies, and faith at livelydust.blogspot.com

Categories: Health

Tags: Canada, chain, death, e-mail, email, england, fact, fear, forward, Health, health care proposals, health care system, Internet, lie, natasha richardson, President Obama, system

U.S. MILITARY SPENDING

This post is copied from an E-mail sent by The General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church. It was written by Mark Harrison the Director of Peace and Justice Programs. The opinions expressed in this E-mail, and most ideas that originate from the "national" church, are much more progressive than ideas and opinions that eminate from local UM churches; at least in my experience.

To get a graphic indication of how much more the United States spends on the military than the rest of the world be sure to look at "Ben's BB Demostration" on the side bar of this blog and "The Oreo Cartoon" posted on February 23, 2009. Then go to the bottom of the blog and find out how your tax dollars could be spent in more constructive ways that actually improve the lives of people.

U.S. military spending leads the world

Military expenditures worldwide set new record.

The U.S. seems to be in an arms race again — but this time it seems to be with itself!

The United States accounted for 42% of global military spending last year, according to the Stockholm (Sweden) International Peace Research Institute's (SIPRI) annual report. Worldwide, governments spent a record $1.46 trillion on their armed forces in 2008.

SIPRI is an independent research institute focusing on international security, arms control and disarmament. The annual SIPRI Yearbook on Armaments, Disarmament & International Security reports on several security-related fields: from trends in armed conflicts to world nuclear forces; from military spending to the ban on cluster munitions; from peacekeeping to non-proliferation.

Worldwide military expenditure increases in 2008 represent an increase of 4% in real terms compared to 2007, and an increase of 45% since 1999. The United States accounted for 58% of the global increase between 1999 and 2008, with its military spending growing by $219 billion in constant 2005 prices over the period.

China and Russia, with absolute increases of $42 billion and $24 billion, respectively, both nearly tripled their military expenditure over the decade. Other regional powers, particularly India, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Israel, Brazil, South Korea, Algeria and the United Kingdom, also made substantial contributions to the total increase.

The United States spent seven times more than the second-biggest spender, China. In fact, the United States spent more on its armed forces than the next 14 countries combined.

The top 10 spenders in SIPRI's annual yearbook, released in June, on armaments, disarmament and international security (in billions of dollars):

1.United States (607.0)

2.China (84.9)

3.France (65.7)

4.United Kingdom (65.3)

5.Russia (58.6)

6.Germany (46.8)

7.Japan (46.3)

8.Italy (40.6)

9.Saudi Arabia (38.2)

10.India (30.0)

Incidentally, SIPRI researcher Dr. Sam Perlo-Freeman pointed out that ranking second in spending doesn't make China the second-strongest military, not by a long shot. He said that's because "a lot of other countries have been at this game for a lot longer than China."

U.S. arms spending increased by 71% during the presidency of George W. Bush, according to SIPRI. As a result, global military spending is 45% greater than it was a decade ago. From 2007 to 2008, U.S. military spending increased by 10%, which helped make global military spending 4% higher in 2008 than 2007.

Another record was set last year with the total of international peace operation personnel reaching 187,586, a jump of 11% since 2007, the previous record year. Despite this, some of the ambitious missions being deployed in trouble spots like Darfur and the Democratic Republic of the Congo remain far short of their envisioned strengths. This means hard choices and continuing challenges in manning and sustaining these important missions.

U.S.-based Boeing remained the top arms producer in 2007, the most recent year for which reliable data are available. Boeing had arms sales worth $30.5 billion.

All the top 20 companies in the 'SIPRI Top 100' for 2007 are United States or European.

SIPRI estimates that in total there were around 8,400 operational nuclear warheads in the world, of which almost 2,000 were kept on high alert, capable of being launched in minutes. Counting spare warheads, those in storage and those due for dismantling, some 23,300 nuclear weapons were in the arsenals of eight states: the United States, Russia, China, United Kingdom, France, India, Pakistan and Israel.

The yearbook also includes analysis of pressing issues and key events in the fields of international security, peace and conflicts, armaments and disarmament. Highlights in SIPRI Yearbook 2009 include a chapter by Francis Deng and Roberta Cohen, architects of the U.N. policy on internally displaced populations, which points to the linked problems of population displacement and "one-sided" violence committed by armed forces against civilians.

Other chapters examine the prospects for the war in Afghanistan and developments in the control of conventional, chemical, biological and nuclear arms. For the first time, the SIPRI Yearbook includes the Institute for Economics & Peace's Global Peace Index, which ranks 144 countries according to their relative peacefulness.

More information about the yearbook is available at SIPRI.

I pray for the day that such reports will show a downward trend.

Mark Harrison
Director of Peace with Justice Program
United Methodist Church

Rachel Maddow - Scarey prisioners on US soil

FROM THE BLOG HOWE ABOUT

Monday, April 27, 2009

The Trouble With Fundamentalism

(This article was originally posted on the blog howeabout.blogspot.com)

Deeply embedded in current debates about how to present the Christian message with integrity is a clenched-teeth holding to a central core of beliefs as an indispensable sign of saving faith. For all practical purposes, Fundamentalists in all of the major world religions have declared a holy war on the questioning of vesting control of religious institutions and even whole societies in anyone except those who hold the "right" beliefs.

Beyond question, beliefs do have indispensable roles to play in the life of faith. They clarify who or what it is that should be the object of our ultimate trust and loyalty. They set out the grounds for confidence that a religion's basic message is true. And especially for Christians, they offer vital summaries of what the Christian story as a whole is most importantly about. But beliefs are not the whole of faith. Trusting in God and loving all of God's creatures as God loves them matter too --- even more than does either clinging to or repudiating inadequately understood doctrines, dogmas, and creeds.

The biggest problem with most forms of Fundamentalism is their overly restrictive view of the language and the logic of beliefs themselves. In specific, the so-called "Fundamentals" of faith tend to be misconstrued as factual statements which only the truly ignorant could possibly deny. On the surface, core Christian beliefs do look very much like assertions of fact whose truth can be confirmed by data and close reasoning available to everyone. Certainly, more conservative Christians look upon beliefs this way. According to their way of seeing the matter, the beliefs that we must affirm as conditions of our salvation constitute the full, literal truth (e.g., a cosmos created in six days) about a transcendent order of things that directly influences the course of events, both throughout the physical universe and in human history on our own planet.

The primary problem with this way of looking at core Christian beliefs is its narrowness. Beliefs serve several functions besides description alone. For instance, affirming that Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary has always had far more to do with doxology than with gynecology. It is more a way of honoring God's greatness and Jesus' uniqueness than it is of chronicling yet another surprising occurrence that happened sometime back and someplace out there, determinable "objectively."

Three mornings a week my first year in seminary, routine and ritual became one: a favorite course, chapel, and then chats over coffee in the "Common Room." One brief chat that had an especially powerful impact on me followed a chapel service in which I happened to be sitting next to the professor of my morning class. Across several weeks, he had been lecturing on the difficulties of getting behind biblical books to the history underlying them and in the process raised questions about the meaning and authoritativeness of the Christian tradition that many of us had not thought about previously. The impact of his lectures was profound, and often disturbing.

Side by side at the appropriate moment my professor and I both stood with our fellow worshippers and said the Nicene Creed out loud. It struck me while we were doing this that in spite of all the questions this man of faith obviously had about this very Creed, when he confessed it himself, he clearly meant what he was saying. As we walked together to coffee hour following the service, I asked him how he could recite the Creed so forcefully in spite of the questions he raised about it in class.

"Ever since I became an American citizen," he said to me, "one of my greatest joys has been reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. Affirming a creed is like that. This, too, is a declaration of loyalty --- in this latter case, to the church. Not, of course, in the sense of 'my church, right or wrong,' but in the sense of letting members of a group know that you're one of them." I still like this analogy. The beliefs that we share as Christians call us not so much to a body of fact as they do to a solidarity with a community of faith whose reason for being is to serve the cause of Christ in the world. Assenting to beliefs is a way of sealing one's commitment not only to God, but to all of God's people at work on behalf of God's creation everywhere. There is indeed an objective order of things to which the core beliefs of faith intend to point. But at the heart of those beliefs is not the distillation of facts, but the confrontation with mystery.

Political Posts

There are two new side bars on Don Quixote of Rome. One is POLITICO.com and the other is PolitiFact.com. There will be selected posts on the side bars. You can "click" the word details under a meter on Politi Fact that will take you to that article and from there you can go to the full site. With POLITICO you can click either on the article to go to that article or click on the top of the side bar to take you to the full site. What you see from Politi Fact is the Truth-O-Meter which "grades" the truth of statements by people in the news. The "grades" go from pants on fire (a favorite of mine) to completely true. Enjoy the information from POLITICO and the ability of the Truth-O-Meter to keep celebrities "feet to the fire" with their public statements.

More Gun Violence

Here we go again. It is 5:55 PM and I just returned home, turned on CNN to see what is happening in the world and a story about gun violence greets me. Three people at the University of Georgia have been killed at a gathering of the "Town and Gown" community theater group. Who is suspected of doing this? Someone who is mentally ill. An individual who is involved in the drug trade. A criminal who lost his temper and "capped" some one he didn't like. No the person suspected of killing these individuals is a respected member of the faculty at the University. A law abiding citizen. How often have we heard the refrain that goes something like, "When lawabiding citizens can't get guns; only criminals will have guns." The man who is suspected of this crime would be considered a "law abiding citizen" any where in this country as a member of a university faculty; yet it seems that he may be responsible for creating the latest victims in this country's decade long carnage caused by guns.

How long will it be before we have reasonable gun laws in this country? How many people have to die before, as a country, we realize that no one needs to own a military style weapon such as an AK-47 or an AR15. No one except the military and the police. No one needs to own a pistol again except the military and the police. I know that these obviously sensible observations will drive those in the gun lobby crazy because they are afraid that they may loose their toys. To think that losing those toys is more important than peoples lives is, perhaps, one of the most immoral concepts one can have.

To defend their "right" to own these types of weapons the gun lover will say that he/she has to have them to protect themselves. I would suggest to those who feel that they need this protection that they ask their pastor or priest where their real security lies. I suspect the she/he will have a different answer for them. Their answer might be something like:

Protect me Lord God!

I run to you for safety,

and I have said, 'Only you are my Lord!

Every good thing I have

is a gift from you."

You, Lord, are all I want!

You are my choice,

and you keep me safe.

Psalm 16: 1, 2, 5 (CVE)

The Cost of War Made Personal

09/30/2008

The Cost of War Made Personal

by The Reverend James R Young

My Father, Benjamin Young, grew up in a household that hunted the lands regularly. He was comfortable with guns and handled them expertly and safely. His family hunted everything from small game to birds to deer, even doing some trapping to help pay bills. Then my Dad, fresh out of high school in 1936, joined the Army.

He had other funny stories, but there were far fewer of them after the start of the Second World War. When he got back from the war, he got rid of every gun he owned and never touched another one again. Dad nearly always refused to say anything at all about the war. The only topics he'd even consider discussing were interesting countries that he had seen and the wonderful people he'd met. I have a copy of a charcoal sketch of my Dad made during the war that is eloquent in its sadness. It was done by a young soldier who was a commercial artist before the war. It is signed "Private Morris, November 1944, Somewhere in France." Dad commented only briefly on the sketch: It was made in a foxhole and Private Morris died 2 days later in battle. I pressed my Dad to tell me anything more about what it was like to fight in the war. He said flatly that he would not, that if any vet ever offered to tell battle stories he was, in all likelihood, lying. And that was the end of it. When he died in 1972, those terrible memories died thankfully with him.

I have a very hard time physically and emotionally watching violence on television and in film. That is why I waited to watch Saving Private Ryan until it came out on home video. I was reasonably certain that I could not have watched in a theater. I was right. The chaos, the intensity of the violence and the utter randomness of death and injury in the opening scene of the Normandy invasion was so distressing to watch that I had to stop it for a while before I could resume the film. All I could think was how did my Father - or anyone- survive that? Later I worked up the nerve to ask my father-in-law, Bob (who was also a World War II veteran) if that scene was at all realistic. He thought for a while and finally, very quietly said, "It came the closest of any war film I've ever seen but it still didn't come close to the reality."

Many years later I have come to understand in just a very small way, the emotional wounds that my father, my father-in-Law and veterans like them to this very day carry with them. I have spoken to a few veterans from active duty in current combat zones, and all I could do was to thank them for the willingness to serve their country with honor. All the while I was thinking of the cost to veterans like my Dad and to veterans today who suddenly came home and were told that they could go back to their lives. The emotional and psychological support for vets and their families is getting better all the time, but can we ever really know the intrinsic costs of war - even to those who come home with no physical wounds? I recently spoke to a veteran who was in a combat zone for many months and saw no action. Even he is having trouble getting used to life as it was before the tour of duty because of the stress and uncertainty that were his constant companions.

It's no secret that I have had serious misgivings about the Iraq War from the outset - but NOT in the way that our armed forces have served our nation. The financial costs of the war will continue to haunt us as a nation for years if not decades. But can we ever truly begin to count the human cost in physical, emotional, and spiritual terms? I'm not sure that we ever will appreciate those costs of this or any war.

The Rev. James R Young is the Rector of Christ Episcopal Church, Albert Lea, MN, and is a member of Paths to Peace in Freeborn County.

Gun Violence

This is the article from the New York Times Op-Ed page I promised I would post when I was blogging about gun violence in an earlier posting. As I said then, the author quotes statistics that point up the need for strong and effective gun laws. Given the limited success of those advocating for sensible gun laws in the past, this problem has existed for decades, those of us who take this principled stand are probably, as I have said before, shouting into the wind. But then this blog is called Don Quixote of Rome!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/14/opinion/14herbert.html

Had enough gun violence? | csmonitor.com

There is an editorial from the Christian Science Monitor at the bottom of this post entitled "Had enough gun violence?" printed in February of 2008. Click on the link to read the article.

The problem of gun violence is an unending problem that has been with us for decades. Much of what the author says has been said before and gun control advocates may be only shouting into the wind, given the money behind the NRA from the gun industry, but how can people in good conscience who abhor violence do otherwise. For that matter, how can Christians keep silent? When Jesus said, "blessed are the peacemakers" he wasn't referring to the western six shooter made famous in 1950s shoot-um-up cowboy movies. As you read the article consider what the author says about the gun laws in Mass. and the futility of that state's strong gun laws because of the lax gun laws of several other New England sates that feed guns into Mass. The answer is, of course, strict nationwide gun laws. But if this obvious solution is suggested to the NRA or any other gun lover it is prudent to have a defibrillator available. They can not fathom having their toys taken away.

I'll be posting another article from the New York Times Op-Ed page shortly. The author sites statistics to support his position and as a result also make a strong case against gun violence. Having said this it seems incomprehensible that anyone could be FOR gun violence; but advocating against strong, appropriate gun legislation is advocating FOR gun violence.
Had enough gun violence? csmonitor.com

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Nuclear Weapons: How Many?

The web site True Majority has posted a new (to me) example of the how many nuclear weapons the United States has stockpiled. As the web site says,"...see Ben's new demonstration on how crazy our nuclear stockpile has become." I have posted the video. Why not take the action suggested by True Majority; I have.

NEWSLADDER

Look for the new connection to News Ladder on the side bar on my blog (donquixoteofrome.blogspot.com) . News Ladder is a "media consortium", to quote News Ladder, of "Independent Journalism". Have fun exploring it and getting a different (progressive/liberal) slant on the news.

Cookies of Truth

Diplomacy With Iran

During the tenure of our last president( Bush II) and his administration, the answer to almost every question about foreign policy seemed to revolve around military action or the threat to use the military. It was as if they had only one tool in their tool box, a hammer, so every challenge looked like a nail. Fortunately that emperor, complete with his lack of clothes, is in exile in Texas, and we can look to the future with the prospect of the new administration having a tool box filled with a variety of tools. It seems reasonable to assume from what we heard during the campaign that one of those tools is diplomacy. Diplomacy is a tool that should be pulled from the tool box when considering how to engage Iran. Unfortunately, there are still voices calling for the use of the military when Iran and its nuclear program are discussed. To mix metaphors, there are those who are back to that one note samba. This is, perhaps, all very interesting but it begs the question, "What can I do about it?" The typical answer is, of course, write your representatives, the President, et al and that is a positive idea. There is something else however. Recently as I was wandering around the web, I came across a new site. The site is Peace Action West and its web address is http://www.peaceactionwest.org/. Among other things they advocate diplomacy as a tool for engaging with Iran (what a concept). They suggest that citizens should make their voices heard on this issue (again what a concept) and give suggestions how that can be done. I have posted a link on the side bar of this blog that will take you to their site. While you are there, you can sign a pledge which says in part:
* Stay informed and learn about Iran.
* Talk to friends and family, and ask their help.
* Take action to support the new administration in pursuing diplomacy.

If this is an issue that interests you, and if you have found this blog in the very crowded and vast "blogisphere", apparently it is of interest to you, why not give writing a letter a try? After all it can't hurt and who knows you (we) may actually have a small part in shaping public opinion.

Episcopal Life On Line

I've added a new gadget to the side bar. It provides a link to articles from a web site from the Episcopal Church called Episcopal Life On Line.

The world as we know it is now passing away.

(I Corinthians 7:31 B) CEV

(I Corinthians 7:29 - 31)

When is it that the world (to change the order of the above words a little) as we now know it is not passing away? Those who like to dabble in end-times theology will jump onto this bit of scripture to support their case. And unfortunately when we read this our minds may reflexively make that leap. But how can we see this in a different light? Consider the world as we knew it a few years ago. the Soviet Union was strong, united, and dominated Eastern Europe. We probably thought that the USSR would always exist. Yet today we know it no longer exists and has broken up into several smaller nations. Or if we had been asked if the Berlin Wall would ever come down we would have said, "No way". But today, in our current jargon, we have to say,"Way." Computers are yet another example of change. Years ago if someone had told me we would be able to create, communicate, and learn as we do through a computer I would have said. "In what science fiction novel did you read about this?" Change: people walking on the moon, women in public office, and members of the clergy, invitro fertilization, surrogate mothers, the list goes on.

I have a vivid memory in 2004 of seeing and listening to a person of color giving the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention and being moved and impressed by what he said. I thought, "Now that is a person I would like to see as President" but then immediately thinking, "He is a person of color. It'll never happen." Never happen?!! "The world as we know it..." is constantly passing away. As the song said in the 60s, "The times they are a changin." and they continue to change. It can all be very disquieting. So what is it we can hold onto in these shifting sands of time? Jesus gave us the answer to that in his parable about building a house on sand or on a solid rock. That Entity that never changes; the God explained by the Greeks by using their alphabet and saying that God is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. Our understanding may grow and change and indeed it took a quantum leap when God appeared for us in human form as Jesus and again at Pentecost with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Our understanding continues to grow for us as individuals as we study, mature, and come to know God personally. Yet that Solid Rock in the person of Jesus Christ is there for us unchanging in love and support as the world changes and evolves around us.