The Saddleback Civic Forum last night disappointed me greatly. I was hoping we would see Rick Warren force the candidates to wrestle with deep moral issues, engage complex situations with wisdom, and discuss their personal philosophies in detail. I was hoping that Rick Warren actually meant it when he said that there were more moral issues than abortion and gay marriage.

Instead, it turned into a two-headed coin: Barack Obama, being honest, thoughtful, nuanced, and intelligent; and John McCain, spouting talking points and obviously prepared anecdotes. And Rick Warren proved that for all his talk about being different, he's just another Christian Right hack.

Why did Rick Warren, who claims to understand Christianity, spend 20 minutes with each candidate on abortion, gay marriage, and stem cells (none of which are mentioned in the Bible) and not ask either candidate how their religious views impacted their understanding of the people across this planet and in this very country living under the crippling oppression of poverty? Where was the question about one of the primary moral questions of our age - that of the United States's proven and admitted use of torture in treatment of detainees (which John McCain flip-flopped and approved in a moral failure that should disqualify him from receiving the vote of anyone who calls him- or herself a person of conscience)?

In short: Why were all of Rick Warren's "moral questions" on the Republicans' turf? Why did he not address the very real and very meaningful moral issues of poverty (mentioned throughout the Bible) and treatment of the oppressed and the prisoner (also mentioned throughout the Bible)? Why did he not ask John McCain and Barack Obama if they thought the Federal Budget was a moral document?

Moreover, if this was supposed to be a faith forum with all Christians on stage, where were the deep questions about the candidates' faith? I would have liked to see a question - or even a mention - of Jesus Christ from Rick Warren or John McCain; as it is, only Barack Obama seemed to acknowledge the existence of Jesus Christ on that stage.

This was a setup, plain and simple. This wasn't an opportunity for the candidates to prove themselves to the Christian Right; it was an opportunity for Rick Warren, about whom my opinion has changed 180 degrees as a result of this forum, to prove himself to the Christian Right by telling them that their two big issues really are the only ones that matter. It was a pitiful display on his part.

Rick Warren has demonstrated that he is just another right-wing hack.

Labels: Barack Obama, Christian Right, Christianity, John McCain, Religion, Rick Warren

You know those ridiculous and untrue emails your Aunt Edna forwards to everyone on her mailing list claiming that Barack Obama is a Muslim Manchurian Candidate or doesn't really love America or is the Antichrist? (When you receive them, of course, you should reply by putting away falsehood.)

John McCain - despite his earlier promises to run a positive campaign and not be a scumbag - has joined them with this ad. To the untrained eye, it may seem like a sarcastic and ridiculous attack ad attempting to tear down Barack Obama instead of tell us why to vote for John McCain... which it is, in part. (That John McCain doesn't seem to be able to articulate any reason for people to vote for him aside from "I'm not that black guy" is a matter for another post altogether.)

But to the trained eye, it's a lot more insidious than that. I study the Christian Right for a living, a movement that is dominated by premillennial dispensationalists - people who believe that the end of the world is nigh, and that its coming will be heralded by the Antichrist, a charismatic figure who will form a one-world government and yadda yadda yadda. John McCain has historically had trouble with this crowd - perhaps because he's demonstrated throughout his career that he'd rather spend Sunday Morning in a Washington TV studio than in a pew, or perhaps because his recent attempts to act like he has core principles and get religion are so transparently phony. (Or perhaps it's because, until he started running for president and trying to get these nutjobs' votes, he actually had sane positions on things like stem-cell research.)

But this ad is designed for the Christian Right, and designed to dovetail with those emails they've been sending calling Barack Obama the Antichrist. Look at the dogwhistles throughout the ad... it's basically a coded message to the Left Behind crowd that they should be very afraid of Barack Obama. Throughout the ad, there are subtle visual hints - the clouds, the overlaid words "They will call him the one" (echoing the passages about the Antichrist), the Obama quotes (every single one, I might add, taken out of context and misused in a complete dishonest way) - that those emails you've been getting about Barack Obama are all true, no matter what Snopes may tell you.

Unless and until John McCain repudiates this ad, fires anyone responsible for it, and personally apologizes to Barack Obama and the nation, he has demonstrated that his character is worth nothing, that he is willing to sell out any of the "principles" he supposedly holds near and dear in order to win an election. That John McCain - who undoubtedly knows better - is basically forwarding the emails saying Barack Obama is the Antichrist is utterly disgraceful.

McCain supporters who read this, the ball is in your court: Morality, if not any Christian principles those of you who are of the faith hold, dictate that it is imperative that you let the McCain campaign know that this is unacceptable. Time to get on the phone.

Labels: Barack Obama, General Election 2008, John McCain, Politics, Religion

They just launched a new website - complete with a letter of invitation from Brian McLaren.

Sign up! Donate! Tell your friends... we're taking back Christianity from the charlatans and demagogues who have hijacked it.

Labels: Barack Obama, Matthew 25 Network, Politics, Religion

Editor's Note: This is the first post in a series I'm starting, where I find people who claim to be Christian acting in extremely un-Christian ways and, rather than resort to the usual namby-pamby language used by Christians on the left side of the spectrum, actually call them out for heresy.

I'm actually a bit surprised I haven't written about Bill Donohue, president of the ultra-right-wing Catholic League, in the past. It's not like he hasn't taken every opportunity available to act like a horse's ass and offend - well, really, anyone who isn't also a right-wing Catholic.

But if he wasn't guilty of the deep heresy and sacrilege of misrepresenting Christ before, he most certainly is now. Here's the story:

Recently, a student at the University of Central Florida - a public school - removed the Eucharist from the campus Roman Catholic church instead of eating it as he was supposed to. Now, I know what the Eucharist means to Catholics, and I understand why the church would get a bit upset about this, but at this point it's a local issue - church calls up kid, kid says "okay," returns Eucharist, problem solved. Right?

But wait - here's Bill Donohue! He wouldn't let any opportunity pass to make some (mostly) innocent kid's life a living hell! He and his "Catholic" League (real Catholicism, while problematically sexist and homophobic, still shouldn't be characterized by Donohue's asshattishness) decided that this kid hadn't been punished enough and made a big case out of it.

“We don’t know 100% what Mr. Cooks motivation was,” said Susan Fani a spokesperson with the local Catholic diocese. “However, if anything were to qualify as a hate crime, to us this seems like this might be it.”

A hate crime? I mean, I know you're all trying to play the victim here because that's what you pathetic people do, but a frakkin' hate crime?

The kid is receiving death threats now! Bill Donohue's "Christians" are trying to get him kicked out of school (and Fox News, true to asshat-enabling form, tells people in the article exactly how to file a complaint against this kid, no matter whether they have any connection to UCF or not) for taking a wafer out of church. Seriously, I know Roman Catholics believe that it's the actual body, but I think the "Catholic" League has forgotten exactly whose body it is - the body of a man who preached forgiveness, reconciliation, and love, not vengefulness, bitterness, and hate.

So that's it, right? Wrong. A University of Minnesota professor named PZ Myers blogged about this - very irreverently and offensively, I'll admit - on his personal website, as is his right as a human being with the right to free speech. Bill Donohue, who can't let an opportunity pass to (a) make another person's life a living hell, and (b) convince even more people that he's a flaming asshole who has no earthly clue who Jesus Christ actually is, decided that he has to go, too.

Now Prof. Myers is receiving death threats and hate mail as well - most of which are, typical of the kind of mouth-breathing Neanderthals who send death threats to people for writing on the Internet, characterized by poor spelling, grammar, and no evidence of rational thought - and, what's worse, his university president is receiving demands that he be fired. For posting on his personal website.

So I'm going to do two things here:

A. I'm going to ask my readership - all three of you - to please send an email to UMN president Robert Bruininks supporting Prof. Myers's right to free speech (even if you disagree with what he said, which I do, at least with the offensive part in question). Please be respectful, use your full name, and do all those spelling and grammar things that death-threat-sending Neanderthals haven't quite mastered yet.

B. I'm going to call out Donohue and his merry band of haters for what they are - heretics and blasphemers. If it is heresy and blasphemy to add an iota to a single word in a creed, then surely it is heresy and blasphemy to represent the Christ of love and reconciliation with words and actions of hate and vengefulness. It's time to be bold and say that Bill Donohue and the "Catholic" League are, in fact, acting against Christ, and need to repent of their hatefulness.

Okay... Seminary hat off now.

Labels: Bill Donohue, Catholic League, Politics, Religion

California Legalizes Gay Marriage, Does Not Fall Into Ocean

I just checked the front page of the LA Times, and California remains high and dry just as before. This despite their legalizing gay marriage, an act the antigay bigots assured us meant that California was now on God's hit-list.

It's great seeing all those pictures of happy couples whose relationships are finally getting the legal recognition it deserves, but sad to see so-called "Christians" standing outside county court-houses with signs proclaiming hate. My message to them: Protest all you want, but please don't insult the rest of us by claiming that Jesus wants anything to do with your hate and bigotry.

Labels: California, Christian Right, Christianity, GLBT Rights, Politics, Religion

(Caution: I'm going to throw some bombs here. If you're expecting measured, academic prose, I recommend looking elsewhere.)

John McCain's problems with the (nominally) Christian Right have been well-documented. Jim Dobson, Christian quack "psychologist," has said that he "cannot and will not" vote for him, and the few evangelicals he did have on board - John Hagee and Rod Parsley - had to be thrown under the bus when it turned out that they aren't so much on board with things like not hating everyone who isn't a right-wing Christian. So even though John McCain agrees with the old guard of the (nominally) Christian Right on their big-money issues - he's anti-choice and anti-gay - he's not exactly their favorite person in the world.

Couple that with the fact that young evangelicals seem to be actually (gasp!) reading their Bibles and discovering that Jesus seemed to care a lot more about poor people than he did about whether those eeeeevil gays are marrying. They're discovering that the Bible has a lot more to say about caring for nature and making society an equitable place for the least of these than it does about the great bogeyman of "secular humanism." In short, they're discovering that they've been sold a bill of goods by the charlatans and pretenders running the (nominally) Christian Right, and that the values of the Bible, the values of the Christian tradition, are not gay marriage, secular humanism, a ban on women's rights, and free markets for all.

Enter Mara Vanderslice and the good people at the Matthew 25 Network. They don't have much up on the Intarwebs yet, but from what I understand, they're going to be reaching out to young evangelicals and trying to persuade them that there is much more to being a Christian in political life than walking in lockstep with the (nominally) Christian Right. They're going to demonstrate that it is the Democratic Party and Barack Obama - not the Republican Party and John McCain - who are likely to work for the people Jesus says we need to work for - the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, the prisoners, the indigent.

I think it's a good start.

Labels: Barack Obama, Christian Right, Christianity, Matthew 25 Network, Politics, Religion

Forgive me for going into theological arcana for a moment: I'm a strong proponent of using "debts" and "debtors" in the Lord's Prayer. (For those who aren't familiar with the issue, there are three different ways of saying the "forgive us our _____, as we forgive _____" in the Lord's Prayer. There's "trespass/those who trespass against us," "sin/those who sin against us," and "debts/our debtors.")

Why is this? Several reasons. The first is practical: Trespassing isn't really relevant to a vast portion of the society. Even for those of us who do own land, trespassing is hardly something that requires deep forgiveness. Particularly given the extent to which the American economy is defined by indebtedness, the idea of forgiving and being forgiven debts has a much more personal meaning.

The second is theological: I agree with Yoder that when Jesus came to earth, he wasn't just proclaiming spiritual messages but practical ones. "The Kingdom of God is at hand" had very specific meaning to 1st-century Jews; it meant Jubilee, the year when all debts would be forgiven, all indentured slaves would be freed, and the land would be redistributed. "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" didn't just have spiritual meaning; it was at least partially taken as a literal command to forgive debtors. Debt, as we're seeing now, can be a great tool for those who want to economically exploit others; to make forgiveness of spiritual (or literal) debt based on one's own willingness to stop exploiting others is a very moral command.

Which brings me to a question: Given the magnitude of the subprime crisis, and given that a lot of these debts are now worth very little, why couldn't well-heeled churches or well-heeled Christian individuals demonstrate "Forgive us our debts" by buying up some of these subprime loans - and simply forgiving them, no questions asked, no strings attached? What better demonstration of the love of Christ could there be than spending a little of one's own money to get someone else out of a lot of trouble?

Just a thought...

Labels: Debt, Economy, Religion

So apparently, at the Mass this morning at Nationals Park, the Pope took a lap around the field in the Popemobile.

My question is this: Did he beat Teddy Roosevelt?

Labels: Fun, Pope Benedict XVI, Presidents, Religion

This Mike Wallace interview with Reinhold Niebuhr in 1958 is remarkable for two reasons. The first is that, of course, Niebuhr was a brilliant man, and his deep reflections on politics, theology, religion, and culture are an excellent model for contemporary thinkers. The second is that this was aired on television in 1958. Take note of the long single shots, the complete sentences, the deep and probing questions of Mike Wallace, the obvious engagement by both people in a deep conversation about the issues of the day. Where is this on television today?

Labels: Politics, Religion

There are three things in my life which I really love: God, my family, and baseball. The only problem - once baseball season starts, I change the order around a bit.
-Al Gallagher

I see great things in baseball. It's our game - the American game. It will take our people out-of-doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism. Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set. Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us.
-Walt Whitman

What is both surprising and delightful is that spectators are allowed, and even expected, to join in the vocal part of the game.... There is no reason why the field should not try to put the batsman off his stroke at the critical moment by neatly timed disparagements of his wife's fidelity and his mother's respectability.
-George Bernard Shaw

The regular season is upon us - and it came in with a bang, with Ryan Zimmerman christening the new Nationals Park with a walk-off homer after a blown save. Today, the rest of the league starts. I'd originally meant to make this a practical post about the Cubs' prospects this year, but as you'll see, it turned into something a bit more... unorthodox.

There's something great about Opening Day, and it's not just the tired old yarns about every team having the same record, or the glories of spring, or the Orioles having another week before being mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. It's that we know that this is the beginning of a long, drawn out, frustrating, exhilarating, breathtaking process, the season that was and is and will be.

Baseball is curiously like the liturgy in many ways. There's a lot of standing up and sitting down; there are hymns ("The Star-Spangled Banner" at the beginning of the game, "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" in orthodox parks during the seventh-inning stretch) and responses (everyone knows what to do when the bugle call plays... "Charge!"). For those who can afford the unfathomable expense, there is the Hot Dog of Life and the Beer (or Coke) of Salvation, along with the ubiquitous peanuts and cracker jacks.

But the most significant way baseball is like the liturgy is in the communion of the saints. When we in the Christian tradition celebrate the full liturgy by partaking in the Eucharist, we believe we are connected not only with Christ but with the saints throughout the history of Christianity. In a similar way, even at the newest of new ballparks or the sandiest of sandlots, when we watch or play baseball, we're connected in what I think is a mysterious and cosmic way not only with the great players of the past - Willie Mays, Three-Finger Brown, Satchel Paige, Joe DiMaggio - but with everyone who's ever sat in the grandstands, with our fathers and our fathers' fathers who would take them to games, tell them what a balk is, cheer at the home runs, marvel at a pitchers' duel.

Maybe this is a guy thing, I don't know. But there's something real, something spiritual about the game of baseball that quite simply doesn't exist for other sports as far as I know. There's something contemplative and deep and profound about the symmetry of the infield and the unpredictability of the outfield, about the men who go to work playing a child's game, about the moment well-savored, the situation well-appreciated, the bases-loaded jam, the ninth-inning rally, the walk-off home run.

But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first. -Matthew 19:30

Baseball is a game of contrasts. Someone goes down with a career-ending injury, and a rookie steps up in his place in a big way. A team everyone expected to win chokes in the final weeks, and a team everyone expected to be in the gutter is in contention. One rookie brought in as roster filling will come up and spark his team, and another one who everyone expected to be the next Willie Mays will struggle to make the Mendoza Line. The first do become last, and the last do become first, unless they're the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, who pretty dependably become last every year.

So this is it. Year 100. I say this every year, but I think this year is next year. I dare to dream, because I have no other choice in the matter; it's been 100 years, and it's about time. The last will become first.

Go Cubbies.

Quotations shamelessly yoinked from the Quote Garden, which is like the Olive Garden but with better food.

Labels: Baseball, Chicago Cubs, Religion

...by someone who's been on the other side of the pulpit for more than just the "Cubs Sermon." (Ask me about that sometime, by the way.)

Let Me Tell You Something About Preaching by Pastor Dan

Labels: Barack Obama, Jeremiah Wright, Politics, Primary Election 2008, Race, Religion

Damn you rich! You already have your compensation.
Damn you who are well-fed! You will know hunger.
Damn you who laugh now! You will weep and grieve.
Damn you when everybody speaks well of you!
Luke 6:24-26, Scholars Version

For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;
because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals—
they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and push the afflicted out of the way;
father and son go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned;
they lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge;
and in the house of their God they drink wine bought with fines they imposed.
Amos 2:6-8, New Revised Standard Version

Don't let anybody make you think God chose America as his divine messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world. God has a way of standing before the nations with justice and it seems I can hear God saying to America 'you are too arrogant, and if you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power, and I will place it in the hands of a nation that doesn't even know my name. Be still and know that I'm God. Men will beat their swords into plowshafts and their spears into pruning hooks, and nations shall not rise up against nations, neither shall they study war anymore.' I don't know about you, I ain't going to study war anymore.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Address to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 8/16/1967

Recent discussions of Rev. Wright and Barack Obama have made it quite apparent that the contemporary media has absolutely no understanding of the prophetic tradition. That Obama has rejected Wright's words - a political necessity given his chief opponent's amorality and willingness to distort or twist anything to assassinate his character - does not make their woeful negligence any more acceptable.

There is a long tradition in Judaism and Christianity of the prophet - of the one who speaks hard truths to a nation and is vilified for it, who says outrageous things and is (literally or symbolically) put to death by the society for calling out their sins. Kenneth Burke would describe this as a sort of communal mortification, the sacrifice of a scapegoat for the sine of the community in order to bring catharsis, redemption, and the repair of the breach. The prophet tells the community that they are doing wrong, tells them that God's punishment is on them for their sins, and is put to death in order to right them.

Though he has some details wrong, Wright certainly falls into this tradition. What is he calling America out for? Why is he proclaiming God's judgment on America? The same reason Amos, Dr. King, and Jesus did - we have allowed the rich to exploit all of humanity in pursuit of greed, we have made war on innocents for material ambition, and we have neglected the abject poverty and deep divisions in our own community as well as those around the world. From those to whom much is given, much is expected. Whether or not you agree with Dr. Wright's assessment of the situation - and certainly reasonable minds can differ on that - if you accept that he sees the world in this way, the Christian pastor has no choice but to prophetically call out the sin he/she sees. Dr. King felt this need; Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson felt this need; Rev. Wright feels this need. And now he is being symbolically put to death for the nation's transgressions, as even moderate political commentators are damning him for his words.

All this is to say that there is nothing Wright has said that is outside of the mainstream of historical orthodox Christian thought. Those who think otherwise have confused American Rightist nationalism with orthodox Christian theology. If you believe - as all Christians should - that God is truly above nations, that right and wrong transcend borders of patriotism or language or economic/political ideology, then there is nothing in Dr. Wright's words that is at all objectionable. Those Christians who are troubled by his words should interrogate themselves and their own theology first, before taking up stones to cast at Wright, the Black church, and the prophetic tradition.

Labels: Barack Obama, Jeremiah Wright, Politics, Primary Election 2008, Race, Religion

Unfortunately, the media loves a controversy, and is all too willing to engage in some swiftboating and Cavuto-esque false speculation if it'll kick their ratings up a half-point - so this fake guilt-by-association controversy is likely to go on for a little while longer.

Labels: Barack Obama, Jeremiah Wright, Politics, Race, Religion

We must face the fact that in America, the church is still the most segregated major institution in America. At 11:00 on Sunday morning when we stand and sing and Christ has no east or west, we stand at the most segregated hour in this nation.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Bethany and I had an interesting discussion yesterday about how this generally isn't just true of race, but of class as well. One of the most tragic casualties of the Protestant Reformation and the wave of schisms that followed it is that, particularly in the US, we no longer worship next to our neighbors. In the old Roman Catholic system, you lived in a parish, and though there were exceptions for the very rich, you generally worshipped next to people of all socioeconomic classes; you kneeled next to a butcher or a tailor or a banker. It was truly a catholic church experience. Today, we worship next to people who generally look like us, talk like us, and spend like us - and everyone knows which church is the "establishment" or "elite" church in their town, and which is the church for the working class.

This isn't to say that the establishment or elite churches don't try, or that they're uncharitable or don't care about the poor. If one talks to people in those churches, one understands that they care just as deeply about issues like the bad economy, world poverty, and war just as much as the people in the workers' church. They're just as worried about being laid off, just as worried about their kids' education, just as worried about the state of their community.

So why is it that the one thing we don't talk about in church is the thing Jesus talked about the most - money? I mean, sure, we'll talk about how to have a budget and how to make sure you set aside 10% and how to handle your money, but we don't talk about the broader picture - the haves and have-nots, and why our society is set up so that the have-nots generally tend to descend from other have-nots. We don't talk about class. And we still segregate by class - a de facto segregation that hurts the church's witness to the world.

The problem is that it isn't as easy as just inviting some poorer people into the establishment church. No matter how nice you are, no matter how welcoming you are, there's still a gulf there. I've seen this in person at several churches - the gulf of the underdressed.

I remember a wedding I went to in Athens with Bethany where I discovered this firsthand. My flight had just gotten in the day before, but in typical Delta Airlines fashion, my luggage had yet to make it - so I was stuck with what I'd worn on the plane. What I was wearing wasn't too informal - a button-down shirt and a nice-looking pair of khakis - but at this wedding, which was at Athens's "establishment" church and featured three-piece suits, I stuck out like a sore thumb. No matter how much people pretended not to notice, I knew I was other - so Bethany and I made a brief appearance at the reception and got out.

Now, this was just a wedding and I was a guest, so it wasn't too big a deal, but our churches are like this too. We as a society - and especially we in middle- or upper-middle-class churches - are far too blissfully unaware of the effect of conspicuous consumption on the subconscious (or conscious) mind of our churches. What does it look like to a man who can't afford a nice business suit when all the men are wearing them? What does it look like to a woman who has one or two nice outfits when all the women come in a new-looking dress every week?

I wonder what it would look like if the church not only stopped encouraging conspicuous consumption in dress, but started encouraging its members to be mindful of what the community's consumption patterns say to those who don't have as much. I'm not talking about the "come-as-you-are" fantasy, which just substitutes $75 Banana Republic jeans for $75 slacks, but about openly encouraging church members to come dressed inconspicuously so as to be more welcoming to working people.

I'd imagine it would get some people thinking about what it means that they can afford (and buy) $75 jeans while someone in their community is struggling to pay their bills. I'd imagine it would get some people to think about how their external communication of their socioeconomic status alienates them from the very people whose welfare Jesus seemed most concerned about. And I'd imagine it would get some people talking about what kind of influence the church could be - on culture, on government, on business - to make our world a more just place for haves and have-nots alike.

That could be the start of some very interesting conversations.

Labels: Christianity, Class, Religion