Michael Curry is the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States, my particular denomination. He was invited to give the sermon at the royal wedding of Prince Harry of England and Meghan Markle at Windsor Castle yesterday.
It’s … pretty cool.
Because clearly Jesus was wildly in favor of offshore tax havens.
If Fox and Varney & Co. Aren’t careful in their tone-deaf, knee-jerk denunciations, people might actually begin to associate “socialism” with positive things, like caring for the poor and powerless.
Fox attacks Pope Francis for making “authoritarian socialism … part of Catholic doctrine”
Stuart Varney: Pope Francis’ denunciation of offshore tax havens suggests “we now believe that authoritarian socialism is part of Catholic doctrine”
A fascinating article in Harpers about the focus by many in the US Evangelical Christian community on the Babylonian Exile of the Jews as a metaphor for what they see as their own marginalization by American secular / multi-cultural society. This is important in how that focus drives the Vice President, and how it provides cover for Donald Trump, who’s seen as Cyrus the Persian Emperor by folk in this camp: Sure, he’s a brutal pagan whose ways are ungodly, but he’s God’s selected tyrant, destined under the guidance of our Daniel [i.e., Pence] to free us and restore God’s own kingdom of Chosen People.
It’s a very Old Testament mental framework, and helps explain why so many Evangelicals seem to be so gung-ho over a guy who strikes me as about as un-Christ-like as one can get. It’s because they’re focused on the highly-supported white-haired Daniel beside him as their last, best, and clearly anointed hope.
(Alternately, if you are looking for a more old-school conservative view of Pence, you might want to check out George Will’s latest column, which concludes: “Trump is what he is, a floundering, inarticulate jumble of gnawing insecurities and not-at-all compensating vanities, which is pathetic. Pence is what he has chosen to be, which is horrifying.”)
[Essay] | Exiled, by Meghan O’Gieblyn | Harper’s Magazine
Mike Pence and the evangelical fantasy of persecution
I’ve read worse!
Originally shared by +Les Jenkins:
Everything I need to know about life I learned… – Sam & Fuzzy & Tumblr
Everything I need to know about life I learned from my dog
At a time when we have no Secretary of State (and the State Dept. has been largely gutted and thrown to the curb anyway), this is the (hand-picked) person who’s advising Trump on diplomacy and the dangers of the world.
From 2013 until last month, Bolton was chairman of the Gatestone Institute, a New York-based advocacy group that warns of a looming “jihadist takeover” of Europe leading to a “Great White Death.”
The group has published numerous stories and headlines on its website with similar themes. “Germany Confiscating Homes to Use for Migrants,” warned one from May 2017, about a single apartment rental property in Hamburg that had gone into temporary trusteeship. Another from February 2015 claimed the immigrants, for instance Somalis, in Sweden were turning that country into the “Rape Capital of the West.”
Of course, it’s perhaps no surprise if all that would be considered a bonus to the President, whose personal national security policy often seems in the same orbit as Gatestone’s rhetoric. It’s certainly made Gatestone a popular retweeting and amplifying target of Russian trolls.
An enjoyable rendition of the Webber/Rice saga, brilliantly staged, competently sung/acted, incessantly broken up by commercials. I’ll be adding the video to my collection (but not the sound track).
Rating: ★★★★ of 5 (with a ♥ )
Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert (TV Movie 2018)
Directed by David Leveaux, Alex Rudzinski. With Ben Daniels, Alice Cooper, Brandon Victor Dixon, Sara Bareilles. A live musical recounting the final days of Jesus Christ and those around him.
On the 50th anniversary of his assassination. Via WIST:
I must confess, my friends, the road ahead will not always be smooth. There will be still rocky places of frustration and meandering points of bewilderment. There will be inevitable setbacks here and there. There will be those moments when the buoyancy of hope will be transformed into the fatigue of despair. Our dreams will sometimes be shattered and our ethereal hopes blasted. We may again with tear-drenched eyes have to stand before the bier of some courageous civil rights worker whose life will be snuffed out by the dastardly acts of bloodthirsty mobs. Difficult and painful as it is, we must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future.
— “Where Do We Go From Here?” Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1967)
A nation that continues year after year to spend more on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.
— “Beyond Vietnam,” speech, Clergy and Laity Concerned, Riverside Church, New York City (4 Apr 1967)
“Which of them shall be accounted greatest?” Let the churches stop trying to outstrip each other in the number of their adherents, the size of its sanctuary, the abundance of wealth. If we must compete let us compete to see which can move toward the greatest attainment of truth, the greatest service of the poor, and the greatest salvation of the soul and bodies of men. If the Church entered this kind of competition we can imagine what a better world this would be.
— “Cooperative Competition / Noble Competition,” sermon outline
We must meet hate with love. We must meet physical force with soul force. There is still a voice crying out through the vista of time, saying: “Love your enemies , bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you.” Then, and only then, can you matriculate into the university of eternal life. That same voice cries out in terms lifted to cosmic proportions: “He who lives by the sword will perish by the sword.” And history is replete with the bleached bones of nations that failed to follow this command. We must follow nonviolence and love.
— “Give Us the Ballot,” Speech, Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, Washington, DC (1957)
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood; that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
— “I Have a Dream,” speech, Washington, DC (28 Aug 1963)
Segregation is a cancer in the body politic which must be removed before our democratic health can be realized. The underlying philosophy of segregation is diametrically opposed to the underlying philosophy of democracy and Christianity and all the sophisms of the logicians cannot make them lie down together.
— “Keep Moving from This Mountain,” Spelman College (10 Apr 1960)
We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws, because noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. Throw us in jail, and we shall still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.
— “Loving Your Enemies,” sermon, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery (17 Nov 1957)
This simply means that there is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies. When we look beneath the surface, beneath the impulsive evil deed, we see within our enemy-neighbor a measure of goodness and know that the viciousness and evilness of his acts are not quite representative of all that he is. We see him in a new light. We recognize that his hate grows out of fear, pride, ignorance, prejudice, and misunderstanding, but in spite of this, we know God’s image is ineffably etched in being. Then we love our enemies by realizing that they are not totally bad and that they are not beyond the reach of God’s redemptive love.
— “Loving Your Enemies,” Sermon, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery (25 Dec 1957)
As long as there is poverty in the world I can never be rich, even if I possess a billion dollars. As long as millions of people are inflicted with debilitating diseases and cannot expect to live more than thirty-five years, I can never be totally healthy even if I receive a perfect bill of health from Mayo Clinic. Strangely enough, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be.
— “Remaining Awake through a Great Revolution,” Commencement Speech, Morehouse College, Atlanta (2 Jun 1959)
It may well be that we will have to repent in this generation. Not merely for the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say, “Wait on time.”
— “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution,” sermon, National Cathedral, Washington, DC (31 Mar 1968)
It may well be that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition is not the glaring noisiness of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. It may be that our generation will have repent not only for the diabolical actions and vitriolic words of the children of darkness, but also for the crippling fears and tragic apathy of the children of light.
— “The Christian Way of Life in Human Relations,” speech, General Assembly of the National Council of Churches, St Louis (4 Dec 1957)
Any church that violates the “whosoever will, let him come” doctrine is a dead, cold church, and nothing but a little social club with a thin veneer of religiosity.
— “The Drum Major Instinct,” sermon, Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta (4 Feb 1968)
And so Jesus gave us a new norm of greatness. If you want to be important — wonderful. If you want to be recognized — wonderful. If you want to be great — wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That’s a new definition of greatness. And this morning, the thing that I like about it: by giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.
— “The Drum Major Instinct,” sermon, Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta (4 Feb 1968)
The time is always right to do what’s right.
— “The Future of Integration” Finney Chapel, Oberlin College (22 Oct 1964)
It may be true that morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. It may be true that the law cannot change the heart but it can restrain the heartless. It may be true that the law can’t make a man love me, but it can restrain him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important also.
— “The Other America,” speech, Stanford U. (1967)
A riot is the language of the unheard.
— “The Other America,” speech, Stanford U. (1967)
In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
— “The Trumpet of Conscience,” Steeler Lecture (Nov 1967)
We must honestly admit that capitalism has often left a gulf between superfluous wealth and abject poverty, has created conditions permitting necessities to be taken from the many to give luxuries to the few, and has encouraged smallhearted men to become cold and conscienceless so that, like Dives before Lazarus, they are unmoved by suffering, poverty-stricken humanity. The profit motive, when it is the sole basis of an economic system, encourages cutthroat competiotion and selfish ambition that inspire men to be more I-centered than thou-centered.
— “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?” ch. 3 (1967)
The gospel at its best deals with the whole man, not only his soul but his body, not only his spiritual well-being, but his material well being. Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial.
— Pilgrimage to Non-Violence (1960)
The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.
— Strength to Love (1963)
The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority.
— Strength to Love, 2.3 (1963)
Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they can not communicate; they can not communicate because they are separated.
— Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story (1958)
True peace is not merely the absence of tension; It is the presence of justice.
— Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story, ch. 2 (1958)
To accept passively an unjust system is to cooperate with that system; thereby the oppressed become as evil as the oppressor. Non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. The oppressed must never allow the conscience of the oppressor to slumber. Religion reminds every man that he is his brother’s keeper. To accept injustice or segregation passively is to say to the oppressor that his actions are morally right. It is a way of allowing his conscience to fall asleep. At this moment the oppressed fails to be his brother’s keeper. So acquiescence — while often the easier way — is not the moral way. It is the way of the coward.
— Stride Toward Freedom, ch. 11 “Three Ways of Meeting Oppression” (1958)
Now the judgment of God is upon us, and we must either learn to live together as brothers, or perish together as fools.
— The Trumpet of Conscience (1967)
The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
— Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)
We are called to play the good Samaritan on life’s roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be beaten and robbed as they make their journey through life. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it understands that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.
— Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? ch. 3 (1967)
To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it.
— Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? 3.2 (1967)
If our nation had done nothing more in its whole history than to create just two documents, its contribution to civilization would be imperishable. The first of these documents is the Declaration of Independence and the other is that which we are here to honor tonight, the Emancipation Proclamation. All tyrants, past, present and future, are powerless to bury the truths in these declarations, no matter how extensive their legions, how vast their power and how malignant their evil.
— Emancipation Proclamation Centennial Address, New York City (12 Sep 1962)
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
— Letter from Birmingham Jail (16 Apr 1963)
In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.
— Letter from Birmingham Jail (16 Apr 1963)
We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.
— Letter from Birmingham Jail (16 Apr 1963)
I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.
— Letter from Birmingham Jail (16 Apr 1963)
We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was “well timed” in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost always meant “Never.” We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.”
— Letter from Birmingham Jail (16 Apr 1963)
We are challenged on every hand to work untiringly to achieve excellence in our lifework. Not all men are called to specialized or professional jobs; even fewer rise to the heights of genius in the arts and sciences; many are called to be laborers in factories, fields and streets. But no work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts should be undertaken with painstaking excellence. If a man is called to be a street sweeper he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say “Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”
— Sermon, New Covenant Baptist Church, Chicago (9 Apr 1967)
It is all right to tell a man to lift himself up by his own bootstraps, but it is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself up by his own bootstraps.
— Sermon, Passion Sunday, National Cathedral (31 Mar 1968)
With Selma and the voting rights bill one era of our struggle came to a close and a new era came into being. Now our struggle is for genuine equality, which means economic equality. For we know that it isn’t enough to integrate lunch counters. What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn’t earn enough money to buy a hamburger and a coup of coffee?
— Speech to Striking Sanitation Workers, Memphis, Tennessee (18 Mar 1968)
Less than a century ago, the laborer had no rights, little or no respect, and led a life which was socially submerged and barren. He was hired and fired by economic despots whose power over him decreed his life or death. […] American industry organized misery into sweatshops and proclaimed the right of capital to act without restraints and without conscience. […] The inspiring answer to this intolerable and dehumanizing existence was economic organization through trade unions. The worker became determined not to wait for charitable impulses to grow in his employer. He constructed the means by which fairer sharing of the fruits of his toil had to be given to him or the wheels of industry, which he alone turned, would halt and wealth for no one would be available.
This revolution within industry was fought bitterly by those who blindly believed their right to uncontrolled profits was a law of the universe, and that without the maintenance of the old order, catastrophe faced the nation. But history is a great teacher. Now everyone knows that the labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it by raising the living standards of millions. Labor miraculously created a market for industry, and lifted the whole nation to undreamed-of levels of production. Those who today attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers them.
— Speech, AFL-CIO Convention, Miami (11 Dec 1961)
If a man hasn’t discovered something that he would die for, he isn’t fit to live.
Speech, Detroit (23 Jun 1963)
On some positions cowardice asks the question, “Is it safe?” Expediency asks the question, “Is it is politic?” Vanity asks the question, “Is it is popular?” But conscience asks the question, “Is it right?” There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but he must do it because conscience tells him it is right.
— Speech, Santa Rita, Calif., (14 Jan 1968)
Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won’t have any money to leave behind. I won’t have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind.
— Sermon, Ebenezer Baptist Church (4 Feb 1968)
Regardless of one’s assumptions regarding the various factions involved in the Palestinian protests and Israeli Army live fire response last Friday, the idea that not only is the Israel Army steadfastly refusing (with PM Netanyahu’s support) any sort of investigation of the shootings that left 18 dead, but the US government blocked even a symbolic Security Council resolution calling for an investigation and the right of peaceful protest, is appalling.
For Israel, there’s little political cost to killing Palestinians – The Washington Post
The violence highlighted the desperation of Palestinians and the impunity with which Israel can snuff out their lives.
Because of course he is, regardless of evidence, or readiness, or military impact.
Because why not? He’s not the one who will be affected (or have to pay for any law suits). That will fall to the taxpayers.
And, of course, there’s the Friday night timing for the ban. It’s usually the time chosen to avoid interfering with or distracting from the week’s activities, or else to fly under the news radar. But this week was a hot mess for the Administration’s news cycle, and this particular announcement isn’t going to vanish over the weekend.
Nor do I expect it to stand, in the long run. But in the meantime, lives will be disrupted, the base gets some red meat, culture wars can be rekindled, dogs can feel appropriately whistled, and the Administration can remind the electorate what they and the GOP stand for.
White House declares ban on transgender people serving in military | US news | The Guardian
John Oliver takes aim at Mike Pence … and some hopping book sales.
Pence remains the primary (meaning sole) reason for wanting Trump to stay in office.
[h/t +Kay Hill]
Yeah, I ran across that online store while pursuing some other information. I didn’t draw this particular connection, though (emphasis mine):
For years, Breitbart has repeatedly complained about the “war on Christmas” as if the most culturally dominant holiday in America was under attack. Now, it has encouraged its readers to do their Christmas shopping in an online store hawking goods that are starkly at odds with everything for which the holiday is supposed to stand. The website, like the president it loves, has put politics upstream of Christmas.
Something to consider as you hear people bemoaning the #WarOnChristmas — to what extent are the most fervently ostensible counter-warriors doing so in the spirit of what it is they are claiming to defend?
A Very Breitbart Christmas – The Atlantic
Breitbart is peddling holiday goods. But whatever happened to peace on earth and good will?
Apparently there is a substantial population who believe that the Obamas banned the White House creche / Nativity display while they were in the White House, and that the words “Merry Christmas” were similarly forbidden, and that now the Trump White House has “liberated” both institutions.
They believe this despite the very clear and easily accessible documentation that it is simply untrue.
I Won’t Tolerate A ‘Different Viewpoint’ When It’s Based On Blatant Lies
A viewpoint based on verifiably false claims it is not worth my consideration. Period.
The tragedy is that it doesn’t exist, but some Christians in the US are convinced it does.
Speaking as both an American and a Christian, here’s what I see.
Christians do still hold tremendous power in this country. They hold positions of influence. They have tremendous privilege. The national holidays, the public symbols, the social structure is all built around Christian traditions and Christian values and Christians beliefs.
But …
Some of that is changing. Christians are being told there are other people who want to sit at the table. Not just the Jews (who were, sometimes, tolerated), but Muslims. Hindus. Buddhists. And, heck, people who don’t believe at all.
And Christians aren’t automatically deferred to, or respected, or treated as not just the norm but the core of what it means to be American. People make jokes about Christians. People want other holidays off. People question whether churches should be tax exempt. People question Christian teachings on things like divorce, or abortion, or sex, or the role of women, or homosexuality, or the origin of the universe, or the existence of God.
Sure, there are a lot of Christians who have little to no problem with those things But the Christians who are most certain that they are the True Christians, the Real Christians, the Ones Christ Would Feel Were Truly His Followers …
They’re not always the undisputed top dogs. They’re not the center of respect. They can’t simply assert their opinion (God’s opinion!) as to what is Right and what is Wrong and expect it to be followed.
And that fall from complete, utter, and total social hegemony is perceived as … persecution.
“I don’t get to shun and fire and refuse to serve immoral people any more.”
“I don’t get to put monuments to my religion in the public square any more.”
“I don’t get to have my prayers read in classrooms any more.”
“I don’t get to forbid stuff, and shame or imprison the folk who do forbidden things, any more.”
“I don’t automatically garner respect and deference for being the epitome of morality and righteousness any more.”
“I don’t get to assume everyone is a Christian, and that they are Baptized, and that they have Read the Bible, and that they Celebrate the Same Holidays as me, and that they Believe The Same Stuff I do any more.”
“I’m being persecuted.”
The word “privilege” gets tossed around a lot, and it makes a lot of people uncomfortable, but that’s exactly what this is: *Christian Privilege. And it’s being challenged. And some Christians simply cannot stand that.
Some Christians see any threat to their being Number One as being persecution. Some Christians see any challenge to their being the undisputed bosses of America as being persecution. Some Christians see criticism, jokes, disrespect, as being persecution.
Again, speaking as both an American and a Christian: suck it up, Buttercup.
Jesus didn’t promise any of his followers that they would be in charge of things here on Earth. He didn’t say that they would get a country that would follow all their religious dictates. He didn’t say that everyone would respect Christians, or treat them as the top dogs in society.
In fact, he pretty much said the opposite. And he said that was okay, at least according to the Bible.
Now, I’m not recommending that Christians should want to be persecuted. Or that any religious (or irreligious) group should be persecuted.
Heck, I’m not even saying that I don’t get peeved when people post stuff that says that Christians / Theists of Any Sort are deluded idiots who are responsible for all the ills of this world.
But that’s not persecution. That is, at best, a debate between worldviews, and, at worst, people being asshats. Being a Christian doesn’t threaten my job, doesn’t threaten my owning my home, threaten my kid being able to go to school, threaten my ability to go to church, doesn’t threaten my ability to vote or buy stuff or participate in society or eat in restaurants or stay out of jail. There are countries where that’s the case; this isn’t one of them.
Christians aren’t being persecuted in this country. They’re simply not the undisputed lords and masters. And, frankly, that bit of humility and need to actually sell the message of Christianity, vs. imposing it by rule of law and social diktat, is actually a good thing for Christians. Because, again, looking at the Bible, being the people in undisputed charge of things is not what Jesus recommended to his followers.
No, Christians do not face looming persecution in America – The Washington Post
The media should challenge conservative Christians on their politics of paranoia.
The video here from an interview with Roy Moore spokesperson Ted Crockett is … both hysterical and deeply depressing. When asked why a Muslim shouldn’t be allowed to serve in Congress (as Moore has argued), Crockett notes that a good Muslim could not swear on the Bible, as someone is required to do to get into office.
And when Jake Tapper notes that, no, the Constitution does not require swearing in on a Bible, just taking an oath or affirmation however one can solemnly do so, Crockett sits there for several seconds, silent, until he argues that both he (as a previous elected official) and Donald Trump swore on a Bible, so clearly that’s the requirement.
It’s funny, but it’s also illustrative. It’s ignorance in action. It’s “well, everyone I know is that way, so that’s not only the normal way, it’s the only way.” It’s the sort of thing I would expect from a Moore supporter … and, sadly, too many other people.
For the record, here is the oath of office for the US Senate:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God. [1]
While the US Constitution gives the text for the President’s oath, it only says that other federal officials “shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation to support this constitution.” The original US Congress set as the oath “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States,” but in the Civil War era the rules were changed to expand the oath text to weed out Southern sympathizers. The current wording is defined in the US legal code.
None of this says anything about the Christian Bible, or being a Christian, or anything about the belief system of the person so swearing. Indeed, no holy book is required, as an office holder may simply “affirm” their vow (some Christians, for example, believe that swearing an oath is actually sinful). And it’s worth noting that Theodore Roosevelt did not use a Bible in 1901 when taking the oath, and both John Quincy Adams and Franklin Pierce swore on a book of law (as they were swearing on the Constitution).[23]
But apparently some people who seem to fetishize the US Constitution to use as a tool against others have no idea what it actually says.
[1] When given as an affirmation, rather than an oath, the phrase “so help me God” can be omitted, e.g., court officials.
Moore Spox Falls Silent When Told Bible Isn’t Required For Oaths Of Office
A spokesman for Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore’s campaign on Tuesday appeared dumbfounded when asked whether he knew that…
Pope Francis has suggested the Catholic Church consider a change in how it renders the Lord’s Prayer (the “Our Father”), when it comes down to that whole “temptation” thing. The line in the Catholic translation in English is “Lead us not into temptation.” A similar translation is used in Italy.
Francis says, “It is not He that pushes me into temptation and then sees how I fall. A father does not do this. A father quickly helps those who are provoked into Satan’s temptation.”
The Catholic Church in France recently tweaked its translation “ne nous soumets pas à la tentation,” (do not submit us to temptation), which has been replaced with “ne nous laisse pas entrer en tentation” (do not let us enter into temptation). And apparently the official Spanish version of the prayer, which is what Francis would have grown up with, is “no nos dejes caer en la tentación” (do not let us fall into temptation). The Portuguese version is similar to the Spanish.
Of note, a new Italian version of the Bible, written and approved by the Catholic bishops there in 2008 (before Francis was made Pope), uses a different translation than the Italian Catholic liturgy: “Do not abandon us to temptation.”
Nevertheless, as with anything Francis suggests, the whole idea has been treated with a bit more alarm than it probably deserves (some of the color commentary about the Pope arrogantly “changing the words Jesus spoke” and “rewriting scripture” is particularly amusing).
The issue is all about translations of translations — Jesus’ words as ostensibly spoken in Aramaic have passed down through the original Greek the Gospels were written in, thence to Latin (at least for Catholic purposes) and then to their modern language “vernacular” renditions (notwithstanding the desire of some conservative American Christians to somehow sanctify the King James Version as perfect, as though Jesus spoke in English).
The key word in play in the Greek of the New Testament is πειρασμός (peirasmos), which has implications of trial, tempting, and testing. The Lord’s Prayer, using that word, shows up in Matthew 6:9-13 and (in a shorter form) in Luke 11:2-4. The key phrase in the Lord’s Prayer got translated into the Latin Vulgate by St Jerome as “ne nos inducas in tentationem,” which was translated into in English as “lead us not into temptation.”
It’s also been suggested, beyond Francis’ comments, that the original phrase prayer request doesn’t necessarily refer to temptation or trial around sin, but asking to be spared of the sorts of “trials and tribulations” that folk like Job went through.
Since God hasn’t offered a press release or set of corrections, the actual translation to use has been up to humans to make. And that, in turn, has meant the the interpretation of a given era tends to color the “correct” understanding.
Many Protestant English-speaking churches (including my own Episcopalian one) sometimes or always use an alternative phrase, developed by liturgists in the 1970s, “Save us from the time of trial,” which carries the same sense that Francis is going after here.
Interestingly, the debate about the change is not solely on the basis of theological truth, or even linguistic certainty, but ceremonial propriety. As one Anglican theologian quoted says, “In terms of church culture, people learn this prayer by heart as children. If you tweak the translation, you risk disrupting the pattern of communal prayer. You fiddle with it at your peril.”
Anglican and Catholic Churches are, by definition, liturgical, so varying the wording of anything there is always subject to a certain amount of angst and resistance from the traditionalists in the pews and pulpits.
In my parish, we use the traditional English most of the time, but for a couple of months each summer use an alternative translation (which includes that “time of trial” verbiage). The idea is to actually force people to think about what they are saying, not just rattle off a bunch of syllables in unison. I tend to agree with that mixing up the the approach, but I also understand that there are people who fall way on either side of it — those for whom the idea of repetitive prayer is anathema, and others who want things to always look and seem the same.
Other interesting articles on the subject:
And, for reference:
Pope Francis Suggests Changing The Words To The ‘Lord’s Prayer’
The phrase “lead us not into temptation” isn’t right, the pontiff says, because “a father does not do this.” France’s Catholic Church has changed the phrase in its version of the Lord’s Prayer.
What do school vouchers mean in this age of Betsy DeVos?
Vouchers for private education are not new to this Administration, but as Trump’s Secretary of Education, De Vos has been pushing those programs like crazy. Public schools, after all, are full of government and unions and even (crazy though it sounds) minorities and poor people and unbelievers. Only by taking tax dollars and turning them over to private educational institutions can good people get the right-thinking education for their successors followers children.
So what sorts of things do kids get to learn at some of the more, um, devout private schools that are paid for by voucher programs?
— How Satan invented “psychology” and “evolution” in the late 1800s in a plot against the growth of Christianity in the United States.
— How women getting the vote led to increasingly un-Biblical behavior in the United States.
— How the Civil War was really a punishment by God of blasphemy and religious cults, and how He made a good thing out of it by causing the South to rise again as the Bible Belt.
Remember, these are lessons being taught from book being bought with your tax dollars, handed over to religious zanies running private schools who are thrilled to have such funding, even as they despise the government that makes it possible.
These Schools Are Teaching Some Truly Insane Things
HuffPost looked into the curricula at Betsy DeVos’s preferred form of education.
Will Trump’s unilateral decision to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem garner some support for him in the US? Maybe, but probably only from people who were already supporting him, and who wouldn’t stop supporting him if he failed to do so.
Will it hurt US interests in the Middle East? Oh, yes.
I’m really not a conspiracy theorist. Really-truly. But if I were, I could easily see Trump as being a plant for a foreign government to tear down US influence abroad and US social fabric at home. He seems to delight in it, unerringly doing just what seems designed to make things worse.
Except it would really have to be an alien government, since his fomenting of war and crippling of US feeble attempts to rein in climate change threaten every human in the world. Or at least our human civilization.
How Trump’s Jerusalem Move Just Helped Iran Win the Mideast
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Some sections of the crazy quilt that makes up the Trump …
If you empty the pot, and it’s not five minutes before quitting time for everyone, make more coffee.
Originally shared by +Les Jenkins:
I need to print this out and hang it up at work.
PHD Comics: The Office Coffee Flowchart
Link to Piled Higher and Deeper
And he’s moving to express it with all available speed. After all, there’s Obama Era actions to undo, oil and gas interests to pay back, and environmentalists and minorities to torque off. The man’s on a schedule people!
…[T]the president will visit Salt Lake City, Utah, next Monday to announce that he’s shrinking national monuments of huge importance to Native Americans. Without visiting the monuments he’s targeted, Trump is expected to announce his decision on a review conducted by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. He reportedly told Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) that he will shrink the 1.35 million acres Bears Ears and 1.9 million acres Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments to a fraction of their original sizes.
More specifically, Bears Ears will be cut to 100,000 to 300,000 acres; Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument will be shrunk in half, to between 700,000 and 1.2 million acres.
But take the long view, folks. I’m sure that when coal, oil, and gas interests are done, and other business interests have had their go at the territory, everyone will agree that the areas outside the redrawn monuments won’t be worth preserving.
After insulting Native Americans, Trump goes after their sacred land
Ancient rock carvings, burial grounds, and ceremonial sites are all at stake.
