PraiseNet

Not Christian Enough

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 08:46:34 -0700

150 leading evangelical pastors met in Texas last week to decide which Republican presidential candidate they, as a group, would support. There is simply no biblical model for this. These men, most of whom are dogmatic, hard-line biblical literalists, routinely violate their own professed beliefs by organizing politically and involving the church in the political process. Look all you want, there is not one single example of Jesus Christ organizing a rally to overthrow Herod or Caesar. Not one instance of the Apostle Paul painting up �Vote Romney� signs and encouraging the faithful to throw their support behind an ordained elder of a false religion that prostitutes the Gospel of Jesus Christ as its veneer of legitimacy in order to deceive.

In The Shadow of The Gun

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 04:13:22 -0700

Many people reading this are likely too young to have ever heard Martin Luther King, Jr. speak live. I was just a kid and kind of blew it off while playing with my toy trucks or what have you, but, yes, I distinctly remember hearing Dr. King when he was living. Growing up, I became used to the nightly casualty reports from Vietnam�a grisly and horrific death count that dwarfs anything you folks may have heard from the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan. As a child, I just assumed that�s the way the world was. Each and every day, for most of my childhood, these reports came in enumerating teenage boys killed over in southeast Asia every single day. And I thought nothing of it. I mean, that�s just the way things were. If 45 teenage boys were shot dead in Los Angeles in a single day, that would be all any of us would be talking about. But, in 1968, it was commonplace. We lost 16,592 American soldiers that year, an average of 45 per day. And that's how it was: 45 teenage boys were shot to death today in Vietnam, and now a word from Frosted Flakes.

Thy Brother's Keeper

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:20:55 -0700

America has moved on from places like Haiti, Sudan and Somalia, places which demanded our attention with breaking headlines while testing our compassion by the unthinkable scale of the misery visiting developing nations. These are places trapped in a perpetual cycle of tribalism whereby a nation, liberated at great expense of foreign (often U.S.) blood and treasure, becomes a black hole of foreign aid as mismanagement, ignorance and corruption inevitably co-opt relief efforts. Two years later, billions in foreign aid remain undistributed even as relief groups, including the initiative helmed by former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, struggle to keep America from forgetting Haiti. But America is growing tent cities of its own and Americans are circling the wagons, fearful of this brutal economy and this man Obama who's brought all this misery upon them. America has an extremely short attention span, our impatience with this devastating economic recession a key example. Haiti has been long ago swept off the front page, our limited capacity for compassion not having yielded instant results. The sad record of these situations: at the end of the day these impoverished, under-developed nations inevitably choose yet another unhinged bully to lead them. They do this because unhinged bullies are all they've ever known. The cycle is sadly obvious: strongmen overturning the previous dictator by promising liberation and change, only to bring neither. While his early intentions may have been noble, his focus and drive inevitably becomes only about amassing more power and more wealth for himself. We've seen this time and again: King Saul, King Solomon, no different from Charles Taylor, Robert Mugabe, Issayas Afeworki, or any number of thousands of tribal warlords roaming a continent afflicted by poverty and disease, robbing, raping and killing at will. And, right now, America has problems of its own.

Putting Our Socks On

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 07:36:26 -0700

I learned absolutely nothing about God from the black church. From black people. I learned about God from the bible. I learned about the bible from white people. White teens, sixteen and eighteen years old, who sat with me on cold Adirondack evenings, while I scowled and hissed at them and called them names. I�d grown up in church, I knew what these kids were teaching could not possibly be true. Knowing God, becoming �saved,� required endless nights of crying out to God, hollering and rolling on the floor and weeping and working yourself into a frenzy. You had to speak in tongues as proof that God was in you. For weeks, these young people sat with me, bible in hand, making me read passages that said bizarre things like the evidence of knowing Jesus isn�t tongues�it�s love. That we are saved by grace and not by works. That the pastor is not a god to be served, upon whom we lavish gifts and unquestioned loyalty. The bible said the pastor is a servant. To be loved, to be trusted, but that he�s just a guy like everybody else. He puts his socks on one at a time the same way I do. I was immensely suspicious of their teaching, but they didn�t show me these verses in their bible�they showed them to me in mine, in the very bible I�d brought with me, the one my grandmother gave me when I was eight or nine. And there it was: the truth of God, and the fork in the road between the inbred tradition of the black church and the truth of God.

Family Plot

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 07:35:33 -0700

I hesitate to mention former Senator Rick Santorum, the latest of a series of footnotes to the Republican presidential nomination scramble, other than to say that Santorum, in his own way, represents the white conservative version of this Matrix we are discussing this week: the intolerant, homophobically obsessed wingnut fringe who, likewise, look nothing like Christ. These people are the Christian equivalent of ultra reactionary Shia or Sunni Muslims blowing each other up in a power struggle over religious control of a civil government. The ultra-conservatives believe America is a Christian nation, and claim to seek smaller government and less government even as it attempts to expand government�s reach into private behavior, most especially any and all personal behavior related to sexual activity (abortion, contraception, LGBT rights, etc.) Flying the banner of Jesus Christ, they spit hatred at LGBT persons, routinely spew racially intolerant and insensitive rhetoric, and seek to repeal the tepid, half-a-loaf health care reform set to kick in in 2013, thus denying affordable health care to the poor while fattening the pockets of the out-of-control healthcare industry robber barons. These praying, sacrificing, mostly white people are not Christians. They are, as are most black Church Folk, Lost In The Matrix. They claim Christ but hate is their motivator. Their number one priority is not the relief of the poor or even the welfare of the nation. Their number one priority is to get Barack Obama out of the White House. It is an irrational and personal hatred of this man, whose unassailably and historically productive presidency has unquestionably bettered American lives, that fuels the Stockholm Syndrome of White Christian America coalescing around a northern liberal Mormon whose universal healthcare and pro-choice stances mirror Obama�s and whose religious beliefs not only deny Christ but are, by definition, antichrist.

Nine Months

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 07:34:13 -0700

I�ve never understood the purpose of Watchnight service. I presume we celebrate the New Year by being grateful to God for having brought us through yet another year, that we have lived to see a new year dawning. Why? What have we done, what have we accomplished for God over the past twelve months? He has spared our lives�but for what? How many people did we, individually, tell about Jesus last year? How many homeless sheltered? How many hungry fed? We�re still here is our triumphant cry as we celebrate New Year�s. But New Year�s should prompt a sober and unbiased review of why: for what purpose did God spare us, shelter and protect us? What have we done for Him and, frankly, why should He renew our lease for yet another year if all we�re actually doing is taking up space or denying His promise?

I, Robot

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 07:33:23 -0700

As of this writing, Friday, January 30th 2011, it appears that Mitt Romney will be the next president of the United States. There are a couple of reasons for that. First and foremost because the other Republican candidates are just that bad. They are, in fact, so bad that I imagine most GOP voters will simply hold their nose and vote in Romney, a demonstrably soulless empty suit. A man of absolutely no conviction whatsoever who�ask anybody�will say and do anything and take both sides of any issue. He is a demonstrably disingenuous man, one of those ultra-rich dilettantes who seeks the presidency out of sheer ego and because, frankly, he has nothing else to do. Romney lacks even a single character trait which would recommend anyone�s faith in him as a leader during this time of great national suffering, but, as I said, the other choices are just that bad and, by God, White America is determined to get Barack Obama out of the White House, no matter what. The other reason is Obama himself. He has failed, miserably, to connect with America in any measurably visceral sense. He just kind of floats above it all, missing his flight connections along the way. He does not emotionally bond with us or inspire us. The dreadful economic times have provided even Red Meat Republicans genuine alternatives to their foolish racist attacks against the president, absent which Black and Latino America won�t feel as pressed to defend Obama. Just as the historic nature of Obama�s nomination stirred and united ethnic minorities and independent voters, Obama�s historic election has stirred and united whites�both conservative, liberal and independent�to be predisposed to find fault with him and want him out. The 2012 dynamic is an irrational push to rid America of its first black president, and the elevation of Romney�a man disliked by both conservative and liberal whites, but who is seen as the only viable GOP candidate�is the primary evidence of that. Romney is measurably less homey and cuddly than the professorial Obama, so in terms of emotional connection, they�re both a wash. Obama has vision, but forgets to provide warmth and empathy. Romney has measurably less warmth than Obama. He is not so much professorial as he is synthetic. He secretes disingenuity from every pore. Romney demonstrably has no vision for America beyond his running it. He is the emptiest of suits. And, unless there�s some real game change in terms of the president inspiring hope as he did in 2008, this robot will be sworn in as the leader of the free world, a testament not to America�s greatness but to its institutionalized racism.

What Your Pastor Isn't Talking About

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 08:02:01 -0700

The sweeping Arab Awakening continues this week, with massive revolts in Bahrain and Libya and fear spreading through Iran and Saudi Arabia of this unprecedented domino effect of Arab citizens demanding freedom from oppressive rule. Of course, as I mentioned in a previous post, freedom is never free, and democracy of any sort would be a new and largely unknown thing to many of these nation-states. Which makes a dangerous situation al the more perilous as zealots, once given freedom, can and often have voted in even more oppressive leadership. Add to the chaos the U.S.'s historic friendships with totalitarian despots in the region, and the flag-waving cheers this phenomena elicits could quickly turn to gasps as the Mideast changes course, becoming even more hostile to America than it already is. With gas prices sure to surpass $4 in the near future, the implication is clear: a hostile Mideast could tank America's shaky, tenuous, jittery economic recovery as businesses, already badly wounded by the recession, are hit with higher fuel costs. This will lead to even more layoffs and an end to new hiring. Expiring unemployment extensions and banking restrictions could pull the scab off our nation's massive economic wounds and reveal the truth of the equation: a looming and still-possible second Great Depression. While I'm certain political pundits applaud democracy and freedom, I'm also sure they'd rather be applauding it, say, next year or the year after, when America was on sturdier economic footing. The ongoing crisis in the Mideast poses a direct and tangible threat to every community in America, including yours. If this is not being mentioned from your church pulpit, you need to ask your pastor why. A pastor's job is to equip us, not entertain us.

Homeless Miss Colorado

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 08:00:50 -0700

23-year old Blair Griffith won the Miss Colorado beauty pageant and is now set to compete for the Miss USA crown, but her mother lost their home in the ongoing foreclosure crisis after her father died and her mother suffered a stroke. Miss Griffith currently works at an upscale Denver boutique that is set to close, and struggles with her college costs and living expenses. She's become a media magnet for the ongoing housing crisis, spotlighting how even middle-class, seemingly capable and stable families are suddenly becoming homeless. "This could happen to anybody," Griffith asserts in a Today Show interview. And she's right. More folks than you know are, at best, only a paycheck or two away from foreclosure or eviction. Subsequent extensions of unemployment benefits and government-led mortgage restructuring has rounded the edges off what is, in truth, a devastating recession, one far worse than the government is telling us. Which makes the conservative right's constant hammering of the president's recovery efforts all the more sinister as, I am convinced fiscal efforts on both sides of the political aisle know for a fact, this country was and remains a whisper away from financial cataclysm. We know the terror of the reported losses and publicized cases. What we do not see, what the government plays down, are the millions upon millions of tragedies-in-waiting, the tens of millions of us hanging on by our fingernails while the conservatives throw dirt on the administration for doing whatever it can to prevent this country from falling apart. Memo to the right wing: the administration, frankly, hasn't done enough. and, as usual, conservatives play politics with the well-being of American citizens and masterfully exploit this country's gullibility and institutionalized racism in their greedy thirst for power. This economic downturn is far worse than we think, far worse than anybody is saying. And it would be a complete disaster if not for the work of the administration the right wing keeps throwing stones at. A win for Ms. Griffith may, hopefully, shed even more light on that reality.

�Half-Revolutions Kill Nations�

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 14:25:27 -0700

I will admit: I honestly had no idea Egypt was so oppressed. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has always been treated kindly by the American press, and has always come across, to me at least, as a good guy, a reasonable if not spectacular successor to the martyred Anwar Sadat�who changed human history by forging a peace accord with Israel. Mubarak didn�t make a lot of waves, at least here in American media, until the recent uprisings in Tunisia, Yemen and other paces sparked a revolt in Egypt�the most reliably stable political state in then Middle East. Amid all of the celebration of Mubarak�s exit is a great deal of global concern over what happens next. Whatever people thought of Mubarak, his ouster is a massively destabilizing event for the Mideast tinder box. While many of us, including many conservatives and evangelical Christians, celebrate this �victory,� the truth is men like Mubarak and even the much-demonized Sadaam Hussein represented important pillars for peace and stability in the region. With Sadaam gone, Iraq is most certainly free, but it is a shaky, unstable freedom rife for a likely inevitable takeover from extremist Muslim cleric Muqtada al Sadr. Egypt, whose progressive, high-tech land boasts the strongest military in the region, could very well descend into chaos unless things get very much better immediately. �Immediately� is a tall order, and the unity of the mobs demanding Mubarak�s outer are sure to splinter into squabbling over the specifics of what �much better� means. Only a child (or a Bush-era zealot) would believe Mubarak�s ouster will guarantee a better Egypt. The reverse is true: his exit will guarantee a dangerous uncertainty for Egypt and the Middle East as a whole as Egypt, the most powerful and stable Arab state, confronts the very real possibility of a collapse into chaos, followed by sectarian violence and the rise of hard-line Islamic fundamentalism which would certainly mean the end of it�s long d�tente with Israel. Much as we�d all like to cheer along with the crowds in Tahrir square, the truth is, the nation had a much better shot at a stable transition had they allowed Mubarak to remain until the fall elections, and to have those elections supervised by U.N. monitors. Instead, we have shaky, mistrusted leadership and the military which, as history has shown time and again, rarely relinquishes power once it has taken control of a state. While this is a terrific emotional moment, one in which perhaps even our U.S. president is basking, the truth is people who know better are bracing (and arming) for the worst. �The army is with us but it must realize our demands. Half revolutions kill nations,� pharmacist Ghada Elmasalmy, 43, told Reuters. �Now we know our place, whenever there is injustice, we will come to Tahrir Square.� Amid the Pollyannaish glow and roar of the cheering crowd awash in the na�ve belief of a new and better Egypt, you can actually hear pages of the Book of Daniel fluttering.

Obamaphobia

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 14:20:06 -0700

A Fox News Iowa focus group last week illuminated the ongoing and perhaps escalating paranoia among white conservatives about the president's faith. Current polling suggests 75% of registered Republicans either "don't know" what religion the president is or believe he is Muslim. Based on what? To anyone keeping score, there is far more documented evidence of Barack Obama being a Christian than there is of George W. Bush. Why does conservative white America take Bush at his word while clinging to the absurd notion that Obama would attend a Christian church for 20 years in some long-term effort to deceive the American public? Saddened as I am by this ongoing foolishness, I can't help but believe the all-white group was, in their own way, quite brave. Moderator Frank Luntz cautioned them that, yes, they risk looking like bigots and wing-nuts and certainly risk drawing scorn or worse in these times of over-the-top political debate. I don't know these people, I don't know if they're bigots or wing-nuts or just paranoid. What the group illuminated, for me, was how little we understand one another, and how that failure of understanding breeds paranoia and fear. Rather than ridicule these people or even take offense, I'm just saddened at how, in 2011, whites are still, for the most part, waaaaaaay over there and blacks are, for the most part, waaaaaay over here. And, instead of making earnest attempts at understanding, we speculate and call each other names. The larger picture, as Chris Matthews' excellent piece explores, is the ongoing question of people who hate Obama on spec. Their default position is hate and mistrust of the president. Their struggle is to find a reason, a justification for that hatred and mistrust. This Obama-is-a-secret-Muslim bit seems to be the only safe harbor such people have as it remains socially unacceptable to simply say, "We don't trust this guy because he's black." Rush Limbaugh uses the Obama-is-a-secret-Muslim paranoia as a shield to unleash simply the most hateful and patently racist slurs I have ever heard. And his ratings soar as whites flock to Limbaugh, laughing their heads off at Limbaugh's racist antics. with no pushback from his sponsors or radio network, and only deafening silence from the NAACP and Urban League. I'd have preferred Mr. Lutz ask these folks the one question he did not ask them: how many black friends they have. It amazes me how these highly-paid, high-profile "journalists" miss even the most obvious questions.

My Pagan Valentine

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 14:19:35 -0700

Saint Valentine's Day has its roots in pagan rituals which included rapes and orgies and blood sacrifices to pagan gods. This is not taught, not spoken of, not preached about and, likely, not known by many of our black pastors who, in an effort to appease their even less knowledgeable wives, dress up like fools and engage in ritualized behavior that is an offense to the cross. Rituals and practices designed, from their inception, to deny the holiness of God are inappropriate vehicles for evangelism. Some have argued that we�re just taking Satan's tools and turning them against him. By definition, Satan's tools are Satan's tools. By definition they are forever condemned and ineligible for inclusion in worship to God.

Second Sunday In May

Sat, 08 May 2010 16:46:17 -0700

Let me think. I suppose I celebrate Christmas, but not in a traditional way. A midnight mass, a candlelight service. I celebrate Resurrection Sunday if there's a sunrise service somewhere or some occasion that omits bunnies and colored eggs. And, I think that's about it, all the holidays I observe. Even Christmas is iffy considering Christ wasn't born in December. I don't celebrate my own birthday let alone yours. Pastoral anniversaries are shameful rackets, pastors assessing congregants in order to line their own pockets. Thanksgiving commemorates the wholesale genocide of an indigenous population. So, no, I don't celebrate much of anything. Once upon a time, every six weeks�and yes, I counted�I was on my way to some mall to shop for some useless junk to give somebody because Fill In The Blank Day was coming. I know people so invested in these ridiculous and arbitrary dates they treat them as sacrosanct. October�time to pull out the pumpkins and paper skeletons. February�time to hang up foil hearts all over the place. Robots. We are absolute robots. November, time to spend tons of money on airline tickets and gasoline rushing across the country to sleep on the pull-out sofa bed in the den and argue with your cousin. Mother's Day is, likely, the worst of all because it exploits women, preying on the sentimentality of a certain generation. It divides families by forcing women to expect certain behavior or certain acts on a certain day. A woman's self-worth can often be injured by the measure of the demonstration of affection she receives that day. Mother's Day encourages vapidity and codependence in women. Like children at Christmas, the commensurate value of the Mother's Day gesture becomes the proportionate measure of external validation these women receive. I know, for a fact, my mother suffers greatly every second Sunday in May, and I haven't done anything to cause that. They�whomever "they" are�did, by enacting this insipid holiday in 1914, a ritual my mother and, just as likely, yours, have bought into wholeheartedly.

Casting Crowns

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:49:24 -0700

There was once this barbaric tradition, here, of Church Folk gathering at a crowded little buffet place after church. This restaurant, Furs, was crowded not because the food was so great (at times it reminded me a high school cafeteria) but because its process were so low. Low enough that the chain vanished from Ourtown a few years back. But, during its heyday, most Church Folk could be found congregating there after Sunday service, services they often groused about going too long, only to then spend hour upon hour gossiping at Fur�s. In this mix, you could always tell who the pastors were. They were the guys, most often the pot-bellied guys, wearing their hats. These men would get out of their fancy cars, just a s often ungracious, stereotypical Cadillacs and so forth, who would then don top coats and hats for the twenty-foot walk to the restaurant door. Being a guy who�d die naked if they�d let me, I could never understand why these pastors insisted on bringing these heavy coats and gregarious clown-pimp hats into a restaurant only a few feet from their car. It�s not as if these men had to march across the frozen tundra to get there. The wives would, just as often, put on mink and ridiculous gold lame �crown� hats, a quizzical display of prosperous bling considering going to Fur�s on a Sunday usually told the world what a cheapskate you were. Inside, many of the pastors would remove the heavy coat�which they wore just to show it off�and go through convolutions of finding an empty chair or such they could park their folded armor into before seating themselves�with their gregarious hats on�to eat dinner. Many, to my direct observation, did not even remove their hats when they prayed over the table. It was like a convention of Insecurity Anonymous, these people behaving like ten-year olds in desperate need of external validation. And, I�m not talking ball caps. I�m talking large, gregarious fedoras, some with bands and feathers and such. Pimp hats. Some of these men having removed their top coat and even their suit jacket, rolled up their sleeves, and dug into fried chicken and mashed potatoes while still wearing a large eyesore of a felt Fedora. Those were the pastors.

The Trouble With Barack

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:47:02 -0700

�Barack Obama has grandly failed to lead the nation emotionally as well as rationally,� Newsweek's Jon Meacham wrote. �What works in a classroom or a think tank does not work on Capitol Hill or in the White House. Obama sometimes seems to be running the Brookings Institution, not the country. Like all of us, Obama has the vices of his virtues. He is cool and steady, but can seem cold and remote. He is thoughtful and thorough, but can appear eggheady and out of it. He appeals to the intellect, but often fails to make the visceral case for something.� Meacham�s engaging essay, The Trouble With Barack, is well worth the read. It is, despite my choice of quote, here, quite positive of the president, making the case that the conservative right�s scare tactics present a distorted view of Obama, presenting him as an extreme liberal when a sober review of the president�s record fins him just slightly right of center (including the president's health care reform ambitions, which Meacham describes as "just to the right of those of Richard Nixon"). But I agree with Meacham�s assessment of the president�s biggest failure thus far: to lead, to inspire. He�s been, for the most part, the Negotiator-In-Chief, wasting enormous amounts of time working within a Pollyannaish view of Congress�specifically the Senate�and, from what I can tell, wrongly assuming these men and women are, in fact grownups. The sheer vitriol going on in Congress, on both sides of the aisle, paints a picture of a deeply insecure gang of children. The sheer level of childishness�from petty agendas to dirty tricks�going on in the face of the worst economic crisis this country has ever faced defies description. These folks seem concerned exclusively with their own reelection chances. Their focus on the coming midterm elections inhibits every choice, every decision, as conservatives bank hard right and liberals move to the center, nervous about being blamed if things go wrong. Well, guess what, Sherlock: things HAVE gone wrong. And we DO blame you�all of you petulant, snotty-nosed children running the country. Democrats: you absolutely will get voted out of you fail to act, to do what we voted you nitwits in to do. Democrats spent eight years tip toeing around conservatives. Now we�ve thrown the bums out, but the Dems, idiots that they are, are still tip-toeing.