Wasting women

Christ calls us to rebel against injustice. He held up the powerful and privileged for ridicule because they mistreated others or did nothing to stop it. Religious authorities were among His favorite targets because their definition of 'holiness' consisted of following rules rather than righting wrongs.

Women have long been relegated to second class status in the body of Christ. Although there have been some gains, antagonism toward women holding leadership positions in the church remains fairly entrenched in some quarters. That injustice is particularly apparent in the Catholic Church where the Vatican has interpreted any advocacy for the ordination of women as an apostasy tantamount to evil. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), the superiors that represent 80% of the nuns in America, were labeled 'radical feminists' in large part because of their call to expand leadership roles for women in the Church.

It appears that this fight is far from over. The LCWR will decide next week how to respond to their spanking at the hands of the Vatican and the coterie of bishops selected to be their overseers. One possibility is that the group will decide to leave the formal structures of the Catholic Church. Sanctioning by the powers that be should not mean having to sell one's soul, but the temptations and corruptions of power should never be underestimated. Suffice it to say that the LCWR is giving strong thought to rejecting thought control.

Framing the situation as the Vatican "blocking the development of thought and the place of Gospel in that thought," Chittister said, "The obstruction and the control of thought is so important to the evolution of theology and the church itself that if it has to be done outside the structures for a while, then it will have to be done."

"This is not necessary," she continued. "This doesn't have to be. But if those elements of the conversation are the central elements and they are nonnegotiable, then it seems to me that the possibility of that other approach will rise, will occur and will have to be faced."

The LCWR got into trouble in part for allowing 'dissidents' like Father Michael Crosby to address the group's convention. Crosby is an outspoken critic of the Vatican's stance on the ordination of women. In his 2004 seminar during the LCWR convention, he did not mince words:

Yet we still have to worship a God that the Vatican says “wills that women not be ordained.” That god is literally “unbelievable.” It is a false god; it cannot be worshiped. And the prophet must speak truth to that power and be willing to accept the consequence of calling for justice, stopping the violence and bringing about the reign of God.

In a commentary published last week, Father Crosby noted the disingenuous response to his position by the powers that be. He, too, has decided to rebel against injustice.

Because of such a nonresponse to these and other communications I have sent to the Vatican in the last 15 years, I decided to make some of them public in my recent book, Repair My House: Becoming a "Kindom" Catholic (Orbis, 2012). Furthermore, given the recent actions of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Bishop Blair, I believe my private dissent on the issue of women's full equality in our patriarchal, clerical church should be made public lest any perceived silence on the matter by clerics like me might be construed as consent.

Thus, I reiterate here what I wrote in those letters above, as well as the statement attributed to me by Bishop Blair at the 2004 LCWR/CMSM assembly: I simply cannot believe in a god who discriminates against women. To do so would be sinful because this would reflect violence against women as equal members of the Body of Christ. Furthermore, I have come to be theologically convinced that the worship of any such god who wills that women not be ordained either reflects clearly debatable teaching or sinful ideological idolatry. The role of prophecy in our church (the special charism of those of us in religious life) is, above all, to try to keep the people, and especially the priests, from promoting the worship of false gods.

In other words, the Vatican is engaging in false witness against God by discriminating against women. I think that hits the nail squarely on the head.

There are three justifications typically given for excluding women from leadership positions in the Church: (1) Jesus did not include women among His first disciples; (2) some epistles included in the New Testament disparaged women; and (3) the Pope said no.

While there were no women among the first disciples, women were part of the larger circle of the Lord's first followers. Women were described as His friends and were even present during the Passover celebration that became known as the Last Supper. After His crucification, Jesus first appeared in resurrected form to Mary Magdalene (John 20:11-18).

Katie German, writing in her blog Confessions of a Thinking Woman, pinpoints some remarkable discontinuity in New Testament epistles regarding women. The letters most clearly attributable to Paul recognize women in leadership positions in the early church. Letters originally attributed to Paul, but later thought to have been written by others (labeled the 'Deutero-Pauline Epistles'), contain some disparaging views of women.

In the authentic Pauline corpus, with very few exceptions, Paul values women as workers in Christ whose role in the church is not in any way diminished by their gender. The Deutero-Pauline authors, on the other hand, restrict the realm and influence of women and generally portray women as silly, weak, and easily led astray.

It is ironic that women were rejected as potential leaders in some epistles because they were viewed as more easily corruptible. All too many men in leadership positions in the Church have betrayed Christ in ways that make Judas Iscariot look good by comparison. Perhaps the patriarchal biases of some disciples in the early church were on display in the epistles as men succumb to temptation just as easily as women. In fact, men seem even more prone to the temptations of violence and exploitation of vulnerable than women.

That just leaves the glorious construct of papal infallibility.

Infallibility belongs in a special way to the pope as head of the bishops (Matt. 16:17–19; John 21:15–17). As Vatican II remarked, it is a charism the pope "enjoys in virtue of his office, when, as the supreme shepherd and teacher of all the faithful, who confirms his brethren in their faith (Luke 22:32), he proclaims by a definitive act some doctrine of faith or morals. Therefore his definitions, of themselves, and not from the consent of the Church, are justly held irreformable, for they are pronounced with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, an assistance promised to him in blessed Peter."

Irreformable. How convenient. No change until the Pope decides. I wonder how many popes Christ would judge to be infallible and truly guided by the Holy Spirit. It is fair to say that it is far less than all. If Jesus thought future church leaders were going to be infallible in matters of faith, He would not have warned us so forcefully about false teachers and prophets.

The body of Christ needs women as shepherds now more than ever. An act of disobedience to corrupt authority seems like an excellent way to set the wheels of reform in motion. Jesus rejected flawed religious leaders and so should we.

Forgive as Jesus taught

One of the requirements for following Christ is to forgive others for hurting us in some way. He took away our right for revenge. It is a revolutionary concept because it runs directly counter to our instincts. It is the only way to short-circuit a cycle of violence and hatred. Forgiveness is at the core of love perfected.

Consider what the Lord taught in Matthew 5:38-48:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Imagine for a moment a world where people actually lived this way. Forgive all, love all, and hate no one. You do not have to have much of an imagination to realize that it would be far superior to the one we live in.

Now consider what happens when someone actually dares to follow what Christ taught about forgiveness. From the Denver Post:

One of the victims in the Aurora theater shooting said Wednesday he's already forgiven the suspect in the rampage, James Eagan Holmes, and hopes to speak with him someday.

"Of course, I forgive him with all my heart. When I saw him in his hearing, I felt nothing but sorrow for him — he's just a lost soul right now," said Pierce O'Farrill. "I want to see him sometime. The first thing I want to say to him is 'I forgive you,' and the next is, 'Can I pray for you?'"

So here we have the story of a man harmed by another, but responds with forgiveness, mercy, and compassion. Even before his wounds were treated, his loving presence was a blessing to others, including other victims.

In the aftermath of the shooting in which 12 people were killed and 58 wounded, Pourciau and O'Farrill found themselves on adjoining stretchers waiting for treatment. Because their injuries were deemed non-life-threatening, the two spent much of the time in a corner speaking about what had transpired. At some point, O'Farrill asked for a Bible and started reading. Soon, Pourciau asked if he would read some scriptures aloud to her.

Two people with every right to be afraid and angry were soon giving thanks, reading scripture, singing hymns, and forging a bond. They were healing psychologically even before their bodies had started to heal.

Any mental health professional will tell you that victims of violence often exhibit signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, complete with anxiety, depression, nightmares, sleeplessness, intrusive thoughts, and even uncontrolled rage. Violence leaves a person filled with an unquenchable fear of another attack and an equally unquenchable desire for revenge. Only those with the ability to forgive can heal psychologically.

The story was also covered by the Christian Post. Pierce O'Farrill attends Edge Church and quickly became an inspiration to pastor Ryan Heller and the congregation.

"Some of the other survivors have said that they can't or won't forgive [the shooter]. Reporters are contrasting him against other survivors, so it is important to understand what Jesus says about forgiving," Heller said according to the Baptist Standard.

Heller also encouraged forgiveness to his congregation, the Sunday after the shooting occurred.

"Pierce has already forgiven him. I think that is exactly what we need to talk about this morning is forgiveness," Heller said Sunday to his congregation. "God wants us to live lives of continual forgiveness. Forgiving brings strength and vitality."

While some Christian leaders attempted to exploit the emotional distress generated by the tragedy to cast blame and sew dissension, many others responded with love and prayers for healing. O'Farrill demonstrated the healing power of forgiveness as Jesus taught. It provides an effective witness for God's love.

The sad thing is that the story in the Christian Post was shared by very few on social media and attracted only three comments. You would think that a story that modeled the teachings of Christ would go viral instead of being largely ignored. Contrast that with stories having a culture war theme.

The other interesting reaction can be found in the comments from people calling themselves atheists to the Associated Press story of Pierce O'Farrill. Hypocrisy by Christians is often used as proof that religion does more harm than good. Yet, here we have an instance of a Christian living as Jesus taught. Instead of acknowledging the courage of O'Farrill, they could not inhibit contempt for religion. Here is one example from the Denver Post.

I don't believe in God because there is not one shred of evidence that one exists. The very fact that there is so much carnage and suffering in the world is proof to me a god doesn't exist. Ig you want to believe in your christain god go right ahead, just stop telling me how to live my life. What kind of sick and demented god would allow such carnage? I chose to live in the present and not by what a bunch of arrogant misogynists had to say 2000 years ago. I have already saved myself from the nonsense of organized religion. As long as we have religious zealots running around telling everyone how to live, the world will never know peace.

If we follow Jesus, we must leave revenge and judgment to the Lord and love others as He commanded. It is not complicated, but it is difficult.

Praying for peace

I never doubt the existence of evil. There is too much of it everywhere you look.

Brave New Voices has a powerful video on the bloodshed in Syria.




Free us all from tyrants and thugs.

Instructions on the theology of greed

The Vatican took the wind out of liberation theology's sails with its doctrinal reprimand in 1984. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger argued that liberation theology was seeking a political solution to economic injustice, borrowing too heavily from Marxism.

Impatience and a desire for results has led certain Christians, despairing of every other method, to turn to what they call "marxist analysis."

Their reasoning is this: an intolerable and explosive situation requires 'effective action' which cannot be put off. Effective action presupposes a 'scientific analysis' of the structural causes of poverty. Marxism now provides us with the means to make such an analysis, they say. Then one simply has to apply the analysis to the third-world situation, especially in Latin America.

The "Instruction" argues that addressing the exploitation and economic injustices found in many developing Latin American countries was an appropriate target for the body of Christ, but liberation theology applied the wrong tools. Ratzinger made it clear that the "Instruction" was not to be taken as tacit approval for the ethically bankrupt dictatorships and multinational corporations responsible for the injustices.

This warning should in no way be interpreted as a disavowal of all those who want to respond generously and with an authentic evangelical spirit to the "preferential option for the poor." It should not at all serve as an excuse for those who maintain the attitude of neutrality and indifference in the face of the tragic and pressing problems of human misery and injustice. It is, on the contrary, dictated by the certitude that the serious ideological deviations which it points out tends inevitably to betray the cause of the poor. More than ever, it is important that numerous Christians, whose faith is clear and who are committed to live the Christian life in its fullness, become involved in the struggle for justice, freedom, and human dignity because of their love for their disinherited, oppressed, and persecuted brothers and sisters. More than ever, the Church intends to condemn abuses, injustices, and attacks against freedom, wherever they occur and whoever commits them. She intends to struggle, by her own means, for the defense and advancement of the rights of mankind, especially of the poor.

Much has changed in the past three decades. Cardinal Ratzinger is now Pope Benedict XVI. Communism has largely been discarded as an economic foundation. Capitalism is the only economic game in town. Liberation theology has been replaced by slavish free market worship. The economic injustices that spawned liberation theology have disappeared as we bask in a paradise where profit serves the common good and ethics are practiced with the skill of a monk in prayer. The Pope's encyclical warnings about the need for ethical capitalism have been taken to heart across the world.

"Profit is useful if it serves as a means toward an end. Once profit becomes the exclusive goal, if it is produced by improper means and without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty."

Here are a few highlights from the recent fortnight for economic freedom celebration.

In the United States, poverty levels have reached the highest levels in five decades.

The ranks of America's poor are on track to climb to levels unseen in nearly half a century, erasing gains from the war on poverty in the 1960s amid a weak economy and fraying government safety net.

Europe is mired in an economic crisis of debt, unemployment, and austerity. The bottom is nowhere in sight.

The economic crisis spreading across the developed world has clear winners and losers. Corporations have been reporting record profits and hoarding wads of cash.

The poor and middle classes have shouldered by far the heaviest burdens of the global political obsession with austerity policies over the past three years. In the United States, budget cuts have forced states to reduce education, public transportation, affordable housing and other social services. In Europe, welfare cuts have driven some severely disabled individuals to fear for their lives.

But the austerity game also has winners. Cutting or eliminating government programs that benefit the less advantaged has long been an ideological goal of conservatives. Doing so also generates a tidy windfall for the corporate class, as government services are privatized and savings from austerity pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest citizens.

I am sure the irony of the unethical people responsible for the global recession also benefiting from austerity measures pursued in the wake of the crisis is lost on the less fortunate.

And then there are the ethically bankrupt rich that have stashed at least $21 trillion in tax shelters to avoid contributing to the common good while the poor, sick, disabled, and old suffer. While some quibble about the exact amounts, their only counter is patently stupid.

He also pointed out that if tax havens were stuffed with such sizeable amounts, "you would expect the havens to be more conspicuously wealthy than they are".

Money stashed in a private bank is not going to "trickle down" to the locals. The fact that Cayman Islanders are not driving Ferraris hardly disproves that trillions are socked away in secret accounts in private banks. I prefer my red herrings fried with a hearty helping of chips, thank you.

For all the talk of ethical capitalism, economic disparities have grown along with greed and fiscal shenanigans. It does raise the obvious question. When will Christians "become involved in the struggle for justice, freedom, and human dignity because of their love for their disinherited, oppressed, and persecuted brothers and sisters?" Or does the "preferential option for the poor" mean that their numbers will increase and they will suffer slow and terrible death? Perhaps widespread misery is one of the miracles required for the canonization of Ayn Rand.

One would hate to think that the doctrinal reprimand of liberation theology was nothing more than an attempt to short-circuit a popular movement for social justice grounded in the teachings of Christ. Then again, the slashing of the safety net for those in need by politicians invoking Catholic social teaching warranted only a mild rebuke while health insurance coverage of contraception had the bishops gnashing their teeth and taking to the street. Christ was not a fan of hypocrisy. As a matter of fact, He despised it.

Dumb and dumber

By now most people will have heard about the tragedy in Colorado. A gifted young man from a privileged background committed an act of mind-boggling evil. After plotting his murderous rampage for months, he shot 12 people dead and wounded another 59. His victims were strangers who just happened to be in the wrong place at the right time. Children, members of the military, and even an woman that survived a similar rampage in Canada are among the dead. It is such a senseless act of violence that it makes the idea of demon possession seem frighteningly real.

Imagine the families and friends of the victims for a minute. It is hard to fathom the depths of their grief for the senseless murder of their loved ones. This is grief that leaves psychological scars. The only appropriate response to their soul-shaking distress is loving embrace. Words to comfort and ease their pain. Increasing that pain would compound evil with evil.

Unfortunately, some prominent Christian leaders failed to witness for God's love as people mourn from the orgy of violence in Colorado. In fact, these leaders failed miserably.

Not surprisingly, "pastor" Fred Phelps and his merry band of alien zombies from the Westboro Baptist Church are traveling to Colorado tell everyone at the prayer vigil for the victims about the hate of God.

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church appear to be on their way to protest a prayer vigil for victims of the Aurora massacre, according to tweets from members posted by Examiner.com.

Using the hashtag #ThankGodForTheShooter, Examiner.com reports members tweeted out their plans to "super picket" the candle lit prayer service, saying "God is at work in Colorado."

Everybody knows how the Phelps clan operates. They show up at the site of every high profile disaster to emotionally abuse people in distress. Their goal is to goad people in pain to lash back physically to the abuse so the lawyers in the Phelps family can sue for assault. This evil stunt works often enough to fund the Phelps family and the Westboro Baptist Church. The Phelps clan is another example of evil of sufficient caliber to raise questions about demon possession.

It is probably unfair to call Fred Phelps a prominent Christian leader. Phelps serves himself and the only thing about him that you can call religious is his constant use of God's name.

How about Jerry Newcombe? He is the spokesman for Truth in Action, the rebranded organization formerly known as Coral Ridge Ministries. He used the tragedy to tell people they should be afraid of God.

I can't help but feel that to some extent, we're reaping what we've been sowing as a society. We said to God, "Get out of the public arena." Lawsuit after lawsuit, often by misguided "civil libertarians," have chased away any fear of God in the land -- at least in the hearts of millions.

Politician Louie Gohmert also blamed the Colorado shooting spree on the lack of God talk in the public square. You expect politicians to play every underhanded card possible to divide the country. That is their goal. Finding a way to implicate your opponents as complicit in every tragedy is just a time-honored tradition in politics. At least Gohmert has a flair for comic relief. He said we need more God talk and more people carrying guns to prevent future mass shootings.

Gohmert also said the tragedy could have been lessened if someone else in the movie theater had been carrying a gun and took down the lone shooter. Istook noted that Colorado laws allow people to carry concealed guns.

"It does make me wonder, with all those people in the theater, was there nobody that was carrying a gun that could have stopped this guy more quickly?" he asked.

Maybe guns will put the fear of God in others that might want to go on a shooting spree. That won't stop people who want to kill in the name of God. Religious terrorists think they are glorious martyrs whether they succeed in their mission of murder or not.

It is ironic and a terrific coincidence that politician Gohmert and a leader of an evangelical organization would make such similar comments within a few hours of one another. Great minds must think alike. Then again, Rev. D. James Kennedy often used his Coral Ridge Ministries as a de facto political action committee so maybe the coincidence is small.

Evangelist Jerry Newcombe went one step further. He rubbed salt in the emotional wounds of the grieving. According to this Christian leader, if any of the victims had not publicly professed their faith, then they are on the way to hell.

If a Christian dies early, if a Christian dies young, it seems tragic, but really it is not tragic because they are going to a wonderful place.. on the other hand, if a person doesn’t know Jesus Christ.. if they knowingly rejected Jesus Christ, then, basically, they are going to a terrible place.

Everyone knows that the best time to discuss theological issues related to hell and punishment is when people have died. What better loving witness than to tell the grieving that you hope their loved one is saved because otherwise they are screwed. Peace be with you.

Perhaps you can write off Jerry Newcombe as just another culture warrior playing the God card to score cheap political points. Emotional distress is fertile ground for political manipulation.

Rev. Dr. Rick Warren, senior pastor of Saddleback Church, took to Twitter to connect the tragedy to the teaching of evolution. Yes, a 153-year-old scientific theory is responsible for a depraved act of violence. Of course, only humans kill for three R's: recreation, revenge, and resources.

"When students are taught they are no different from animals, then they act like it."

Why a bona fide Christian leader would blame a terrible tragedy on a scientific theory is hard to understand. Perhaps the temptation to score a political point was greater than his desire to minister to those in despair. Perhaps Warren had a change of heart or realized that his tweet was attracting more criticism than applause so he erased it. Here is a link to his original tweet. Someone should tell Warren that screen shots of his tweet are all over the place and nothing ever disappears from the internet thanks to caches.

Most religious leaders reacted appropriately to the grief from the senseless murder and mayhem in Colorado. The problem is less that a few Christian leaders behaved badly than the fact that every tragedy seems to bring out similar acts by at least one prominent Christian leader. It is the consistency of boneheaded comments in the aftermath of tragedies that gives religion a bad name.

You can never go wrong when responding to a tragedy with a message of love and grace but you will be wrong more often than not with message of hatred and blame. Love others as you would wish to be loved. It is not complicated unless you have a political axe to grind.

For those in grief and pain in Colorado

We pray for comfort and the Lord's loving presence for all touched by the terrible tragedy of violence in Colorado.



Be with them as they struggle to heal, understand, and let go of anger.

"Learning the way of Jesus"

In our culture obsessed with wealth, celebrity, and consumption, Greg and Helms Jarrell offer an important perspective on "learning the way of Jesus."

Life in Enderly Park has been a training ground for me in unlearning that perspective on mission. I am learning to see that my neighbors, who are mostly poor and mostly black, are some of the best teachers I can have in learning the way of Jesus. They certainly do not have all of the answers, but learning to see my neighbors as brother and sister rather than as recipients of my charitable cause represents a shift in doing mission. This is a shift that has been going on for a while – Hyaets Community certainly did not make this up – but that still needs wider adoption throughout the church in America.

Culture war propaganda

Did you hear the one about the preacher that was jailed for holding a bible study session in his home? To fully appreciate the story, let me set the scene for you. It is a peaceful Sunday morning. The birds are chirping. Kids are out playing. Suddenly. there is a screech of tires in the driveway and the slamming of car doors. An army of police in riot gear burst through the door, grab the bible from the preacher's hands, and roughly handcuff the bewildered man.

Fox News, the last bastion for truth, justice, and the American way, was quick to cover the story. This case shows how religion, especially Christianity, is under attack by a government overrun with secularists, atheists, and even an Islamist or two.

The controversy erupted in 2009 when nearly a dozen police officers raided the Salman’s home and a 2,000 square foot building in their backyard. The family had moved their Bible study into the building after the group outgrew their living room.

Pastor Michael Salman, brave and resolute in the face of persecution, tells supporters to keep the faith.

“We believe that people should not be prohibiting other people from having Bible studies in their homes,” Salman said outside the jail. “We believe what they are doing is wrong. It’s private property. It’s our home.”

Salman embraced some of his Bible study members before offering final remarks.

“At the very end, after all is said and done, God will ultimately have glory in this,” he said. “We do this for the glory of the Lord.”

Someone off camera could be heard remarking, “I love you, pastor.”

Religious liberty is the new buzzword. We have Catholic bishops holding prayer vigils and calling the president as bad as Hitler and Stalin. There are lawsuits galore over alleged violations of free speech and exercise of religion on public property. Mega-church pastors are demanding the right to endorse political candidates from the pulpit and preach hatred about a laundry list of enemies. Public schools are under fire for not allowing creationism to be taught in science classes and not teaching that America was created as a Christian nation. Any organization with a religious charter is demanding the right to ignore laws that violate their "conscience" and make money without paying any taxes.

Religious liberty is a narrative that has more to do with power and money than with religion. It is deeply cynical. What else can you call people who already have special privileges and want more? These are people who claim to be persecuted every time society does not bend and bow to their every whim.

Consider the case of the preacher in Arizona supposedly persecuted for holding bible study in his home. When he purchased the property, it was zoned for residential use only. Michael Salman petitioned for tax-exempt status for his home and property as a church. This petition was granted in 2008 and he has exercised this privilege of not paying property taxes ever since. He then built a 2000 square foot "game room" behind the residence, which did not conform to building codes for structures open to the public.

Here is the gist of the case from the Arizona Republic:

The city's conflict with Salman began even before he and his wife decided to build the game room onto their home, when concerns about the use of the property were beginning to emerge. Salman's addition was approved by the city with the caveat that the property not house a business or church, among other uses.

The reason: Specific zoning and safety requirements would otherwise apply. Such concerns include adequate parking, emergency exits, Fire Department access and other measures intended to protect the safety of large numbers of people who might congregate there.

When city officials discovered Salman was using the game room as a sanctuary, prosecutors initiated a civil action against the Harvest Community Church, resulting in a fine of about $180,000, Carreon-Ainsa said.

In other words, Michael Salman lied about the intended use of the "game room" and ignored building requirements to protect public safety. He wanted the right to ignore laws he found inconvenient. He also ignored the rights of his neighbors to have a say in zoning variations in their neighborhood. In effect, he failed even the most narrow definition of loving your neighbor as yourself.

Fox News and other culture war propaganda outlets neglected one other little detail. Why did the police arrive in large numbers and wearing protective gear to serve a civil warrant? Pastor Salman has a history of violence.

Salman was sentenced to six years in prison in 1993 for shooting into an occupied home in Phoenix a year earlier. The victim told the judge that she felt one of the bullets from Salman's gun go through her hair and barely miss her head, according to court documents.

A witness in that case told prosecutors that Salman had used a gun to threaten a man in a Paradise Valley mall one month before he was indicted in the shooting, that Salman had participated in other drive-by shootings and that he carried a gun in a concealed holster.

It does make you wonder how someone with so little regard for others can possibly teach others to be humble, merciful, compassionate, forgiving, and loving in the broadest sense of the word. Perhaps he has changed. After all, the Apostle Paul was a genocidal maniac before his conversion on the road to Damascus.

But all is fair in political love and culture war. Just ask Tony Perkins.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council said the attack against Salman should serve as a wake-up call to Christians across the nation.

“Any time religious freedom or the freedom of speech is infringed upon, Americans should be concerned,” Perkins told Fox News Radio. “We are seeing jurisdictions using zoning ordinances to crack down the exercise of religious freedom.”

Tony Perkins and other culture warriors are truly magnificent cynics. They never miss an opportunity to spin events to shape public opinion regardless of the facts. Facts be damned. Lies are just a necessary evil towards a glorious end.

Michael Salman was not "attacked." He either lied to obtain a building permit or violated the terms of that permit. He broke the law. He got caught. Turning him into a victim and folk hero is profoundly cynical. It is not surprising that people are losing confidence in organized religion and younger generations are turning away from faith.

There is another word beyond cynical to describe culture war gambits. Blasphemy. Using the name of God to gain power, privilege, or money shows no reverence for the sacred. It is pathetic witness instead of prophetic witness. One would do well to remember what Jesus condemned the religious leaders of His day for doing (Luke 11: 39-43).

Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? But now as for what is inside you — be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.

“Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.

“Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces.

In other words, they paid lip service to God while serving themselves.

Small church, big heart, inspiring faith

Jesus made a pointed observation about generosity of spirit in highlighting the significance of a poor widow's donation (Mark 12: 41-44):

Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.

Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

There is a direct parallel in a small church in Mississippi. This congregation of about 50 people, many struggling with poverty, voted to use all the donations to help those in need.

Just 50 people, many of them transient in nature, regularly attend the six-year-old Traceway Baptist Church. Yet, from April 2010 to April 2011, the church was able to give away $60,000 to people in the community that were hurting in many ways, said Richardson, who has written a book on the story and subject of generosity called Giving Away the Collection Plate (June 2012).

"Everything that was given to our church in the offering plates was given away to abused mothers that got out of bad situations basically with the clothes on their backs, or people that were trying to break free from addiction, or people that had lost jobs or facing foreclosures, or had extreme medical bills, or anything like that," he said.

After hearing of the commitment by Traceway Baptist Church, another church offered them unused space free of charge.

John Richardson, Traceway's pastor, noted why true generosity is critical to discipleship.

"When you really start to live generously, and especially if you feel this is something that God has asked you to do, it just opens your eyes to how incredibly generous God is to us," he said. "Generosity is not just a nice thing to do. It's probably the answer to the biggest spiritual hurdle that we have today in becoming disciples. When you are generous that's an antidote to greed.

Our mission is to be an effective witness to God's love. To love as Jesus taught us to love. It is not complicated. It is also the perfect counterpoint to the celebration of wealth and the rich in our culture.

It is interesting that a community of people who know what it means to struggle financially was able to channel those experiences as empathy and compassion for others in the same place. Perhaps the more you have, the more you look at generosity as an obligation rather than privilege.

This past weekend, I was helping a man pick out items from the food pantry. As he was selecting canned and dried fruits, he said. "I don't like these much, but my neighbor really likes them and she cannot get out much any more."

Active faith

Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson describes the tension between our spiritual beliefs and our physical existence in "Embodied Spirituality: 'The Body Is the Glory of the Soul'." That tension is the foundation of religion.

Belief in God feeds our soul with the promise of a spiritual life beyond our mortal existence. We are forced to value the spiritual over the material. Our physical existence is less important because it is finite and imperfect. Our bodies tempt us with sin and confound us with suffering, potentially endangering our spiritual immortality. Our possessions can be lost or destroyed in the blink of an eye. Our sacred texts frequently remind us to keep our eyes on the spiritual prize.

There is a seduction that often goes unnoticed. If all God wants from us is belief, avoiding the temptation to hurt others, and teaching others to do likewise, then spiritual practice can be rather passive. It is the promise of reward with minimal responsibility. And anything that goes haywire in this world is due to human predisposition to sin and not our responsibility to fix it.

Rabbi Artson reminds us that passive spirituality is not what God has in mind. The tradition in Judaism is for God being present in our imperfect physical existence and working through us.

"It is the crowning glory of the Torah, and of the rabbis (who were not themselves students of Plato, and therefore weren't really aware of this dichotomy), to focus Jewish life not in people thinking together, but in deeds of holiness. It is what we do in a world that presents the venue for God to enter the world. Suffering is not an interesting theological problem; it is a call to action. Do you know someone who is hurting? Help them. Do you know someone who is lonely? Welcome them."

The impulse for passive spirituality comes from us. It ignores injustices and allows us to be self-centered. The evil that exists in this world is God's problem, not yours.

"I believe that splitting body and soul into separate camps also ultimately trivializes issues of social justice: Don't worry that there are people starving, because after all, this world is already a degraded place, and we need to focus on what is spiritually pure. How petty politics becomes when you are promised an eternal life with no corporeality whatsoever.

And, finally, understanding God's perfection to be of another world, this mundane and ephemeral world need not occupy much of our attention. The fact that we are melting the ice caps and incinerating the ozone layer, that species are becoming extinct in an accelerated rate, need not occupy our attention. From the perspective of a physical/spiritual dichotomy, these unfortunate events constitute corporeal trivia. Focus instead on eternal salvation!"

Two thousand years ago, a rabbi named Jesus taught that we are to love others, which means attending to their needs and suffering as much as our own. And if you are self-centered, you are part of the problem rather than the solution. He dismissed loving your family and friends as generosity of spirit, nothing that even evil people do that. Your family includes all the children of God. You are to treat strangers and even your enemies as friends and neighbors. In other words, stop fantasizing about your spiritual reward, roll up your sleeves, and get busy loving others and caring for God's creation.

Immature, self-centered faith gives religion a bad name. It gives the privileged an excuse to do nothing and tells those in need to focus on their spiritual reward. It is not simply lazy, but fertile ground for evil. It deifies injustice. Remember what Karl Marx said about religion?

"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people".

That criticism is valid when it refers to faith without action. Dead faith (James 2:14-17):

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

Rabbi Artson reminds us to revel in living faith.

"This is a more integrated view which understands that the world around us is not nearly a source of degradation and temptation, but, in fact, one of God's greatest gifts to us. We are invited to delight in the senses we have been given and in the world into which we have been born. And because of that wonderful gift, this integrated view of embodied soulfulness urges us to recommit ourselves now and throughout the years to the renewal of God's creation, to the repair of a broken world -- one body at a time, one person at a time." 

Amen, Rabbi. Amen.

An interesting question

Mark Silk of the Religion News Service asks an interesting question about the sexual abuse scandals that have hit Penn State and the Catholic Church. What if the Catholic Church responded to its sexual abuse scandal the way Penn State officials responded to theirs?

Imagine an alternate universe where the Catholic Church behaved the way the trustees of the Pennsylvania State University have when confronted with evidence of the cover-up of sexual abuse of minors by the leadership of one of its important institutions.

The implication is that Penn State handled the abuse scandal better than the Catholic Church. Better is a relative term since both ignored or actively covered up evidence of sexual abuse of children for at least a decade. There are two problems with such comparisons.

First, one person was responsible for the abuse at Penn State whereas the scandal in the Catholic Church had too many perpetrators to count across the world. In terms of scale, there is no comparison.

The larger problem, however, is that one institution was secular and one served Christ. Penn State tarnished the reputation of a university, especially its high profile football program. The leaders of the Catholic Church betrayed Christ. The Messiah. The Son of God. They allowed priests to harm a mind-boggling number of children across the globe and bankrupted dioceses across the United States.

In the parable of the faithful servant, Jesus closes with a pointed warning (Luke 12:47-48):

“The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."

The Catholic Church was entrusted with much and chose to betray Christ. That betrayal goes beyond squandering billions of dollars and shattering the public trust. The bishops have compounded their many sins by setting the worst possible example for fellow Christians on what it means to repent. When news of the scandal broke, did you see Catholic leaders figuratively don sackcloth and ashes? Did you see tearful confessions and mass resignations of bishops and cardinals? All we heard were promises the problem had been fixed and abuse by priests would no longer by tolerated. Any accountability has come through the courts in the form of prosecutions and lawsuits. To this day, bishops in half of the dioceses across the globe have yet to even finish drafting anti-abuse guidelines, missing a May deadline set by the Vatican.

What the bishops have lacked in contrition, they have more than made up for in arrogance. Over the past 5 years, Catholic leaders have presented themselves as authorities on sexual morality, beating their breast over same-sex marriage and contraception. Ah yes. Let those with many sins distract the public by throwing as many stones as possible at others. Huzzah.

When King David lusted after the wife of one of his generals, put the man in harm's way, and then married the widow, he spent the rest of his life apologizing and writing love poems to God. The sins of David, while terrible, pale in comparison to the sins of Catholic leaders in their handling of the sex abuse scandal. Remember what the Lord told David through Nathan (2 Samuel 12:7-10):

Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’

Christ had an adversarial relationship with the religious authorities of His day because of their hypocrisy, exploitation, and substitution of ritual for heartfelt practice. Now imagine what He would say about the abuse of children, hiding the abuse, squandering the resources of the church, failure to take responsibility for misdeeds, and setting a terrible example for the faithful.

The latest Gallup survey shows continued erosion of public confidence in organized religion, particularly among Catholics. That is one fruit of highly publicized scandals, but there is more to it than that. The trend shows a fairly steady decline in confidence since the mid-1980s rather than a few valleys attributable to scandal. It is a symptom of systemic failure. Perhaps if our religious leaders thought more about the body of Christ instead of their own power and privilege, we could be a more effective force to help repair a broken world. These leaders demand obedience when they deserve condemnation.

Should Christians ignore injustice?

The answer should be obvious. If people are being harmed, should you be silent? Should we shrug it off as God's problem as long as it does not happen to us, our family, or our friends? Of course not. You cannot love others as Christ commanded if you do nothing to help those being broken physically, emotionally, or spiritually.

If we believed our mission was to do everything possible to repair the world as witness to God's love, then why are things like this so common in our society:

Shelby County Circuit Judge Hub Harrington unleashed a double-barreled dose of disdain this week for what has gone on in Harpersville under the alias of justice.

He described a system in which poor people are charged more because they can't initially pay petty traffic fines. Some are jailed -- for months -- because they can't pay ballooning, "unconscionable" fees. They are left without a lawyer, a day in court, or a voice.

So the poor in Shelby County in Alabama were deliberately targeted for exploitation. Fees, penalties, and jail for trivial mistakes and offenses. This scheme was deliberately created to produce profit from poor people. Are the Christians in Shelby County blind, deaf, or apathetic? Shelby County is the richest in Alabama, but the poor are knowingly fed to an abusive system.

The story goes on to describe how common these practices have become across Alabama and the nation.

And it happens more and more, across Alabama and the nation. The poor go to jail while the rest go home without a second thought.

It's what happens when governments turn court operations over to for-profit companies. It happens, more to the point, when governments pass the buck to get a buck.

These schemes work like this.

Say, for instance, you can't pay a traffic ticket right off the bat. You will be referred to that company -- Judicial Correction Services in Harpersville's case. It tacks on initial charges and monthly fees, on top of the original fines. The bills climb, sometimes into the thousands. Those who can't pay can be sent to jail. They can even be charged extra for every day they spend behind bars.

Is it our responsibility as followers of Christ to speak out against oppressive and exploitive schemes like the one in Shelby County? If it were our priority, I doubt these injustices would be so common. And if our hearts for those in need have been hardened to the point that our empathy and compassion fail, what does that say about the sincerity of our beliefs in what Christ taught?

What happens when you have nothing and cry out to God for mercy, but people calling themselves Christians do not help? Or worse, look the other way as people find ways to increase your suffering? Do you think this person will be more or less receptive to Christ's message?

Read the comments to the article and find me someone who demands mercy and love for those in need in the name of Christ. This system was created by people in Alabama and operated by a company in Georgia. These are places where Christ's name is frequently invoked. Were there Christians that participated in this blatant attempt to exploit the poor?

You cannot have effective evangelism without also trying to repair the world of injustice. They go hand in hand. Scattering seed is pointless without removing weeds and feeding the soil.

Fraying at the margins

The best barometer of a nation's soul is how it treats the vulnerable at the margins of society. In terms of public policy, we at least pretended to care about the poor, sick, disabled, and old during the 1960's. Times have changed. No one would accuse present day America of having any heart for those in need of protection.

Lately, our elected officials have become wolves. At a time of very high unemployment and a foreclosure crisis courtesy of the Wall Street casino, the safety net for the less fortunate is the first on the austerity chopping block. Those funds are being diverted to corporate tax breaks. Extreme poverty is on the rise with nearly 7% of the American population living on less than 50% of federal poverty line. And just for good measure, new ordinances have been passed across the nation to criminalize the poor and homeless.

The State of Florida deserves a special award for savagery. Not only has the state been a national leader in shredding the social safety net, foreclosures, high employment, capital punishment, shoot-to-kill gun laws, and criminalizing poverty, they have pioneered wanton disregard for the poor.

The official story goes something like this. Earlier this year, the state health department had evidence of an alarming spike in tuberculosis (TB) with 13 deaths and 99 currently infected, almost all from the homeless population. The same strain has been identified in all cases so there is no doubt this is an infectious cluster. Despite knowing of the problem, officials decided to close the only TB hospital in the state. Funds for the facility had been axed as part of austerity measures but was scheduled to remain open until the end of the year. So despite a sudden increase in TB cases in a population with few other medical care options, the health department closed the facility ahead of schedule. And the best part of all, state health officials kept the outbreak out of the public eye and did little to limit contact with infected people. Thanks to turfing the homeless to shelters and the criminal justice system, people with something like TB come in close contact with many other people, especially others unlikely to have been routinely screened for TB and have impaired immune function due to chronic stress and poor sanitation. Infection, meet juicy vector.

From the Palm Beach Post:

The CDC officer had a serious warning for Florida health officials in April: A tuberculosis outbreak in Jacksonville was one of the worst his group had investigated in 20 years. Linked to 13 deaths and 99 illnesses, including six children, it would require concerted action to stop.

That report had been penned on April 5, exactly nine days after Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed the bill that shrank the Department of Health and required the closure of the A.G. Holley State Hospital in Lantana, where tough tuberculosis cases have been treated for more than 60 years.

It is a little like knowing a potentially deadly hurricane is coming and doing nothing to alert the public or plan for the aftermath. Hurricanes, however, damage private property so few officials are that stupid. TB in homeless population just means death among the poor and disenfranchised.

Of course, the great state of Florida cannot explain how all this happened. Well, that is not entirely accurate. The state refuses to name the officials that fumbled the ball. Everyone is pleading ignorance.

As health officials in Tallahassee turned their focus to restructuring, Dr. Robert Luo’s 25-page report describing Jacksonville’s outbreak — and the measures needed to contain it – went unseen by key decision makers around the state. At the health agency, an order went out that the TB hospital must be closed six months ahead of schedule.

Imagine this. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tells state officials that there is a serious TB outbreak and it gets lost in shuffle while the chain of command effectively follows orders from the governor's office. The TB hospital is closed and only 253 of 3000 at-risk people with known contact with TB cases have been located and screened. The public is kept in the dark from April until June when the same TB strain originally identified in Jacksonville is found in Miami. Whoops.

I suppose you could look at this situation as slash-and-burn government policy. You cut government programs and then act surprised when government agencies cannot respond to an emergency. You should see the shocked expression on my face.

Here a few fun facts about TB. You can treat it with a drug cocktail costing about $500, but it has been administered by public health nurses who can insure that it taken systematically over 6 months. If a person discontinues treatment prematurely, the infection can quickly become antibiotic resistant. Now there is a strain you absolutely do not want to see spread. And once a case becomes resistant, public health costs skyrocket into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

State officials knew a TB outbreak in the homeless population would be difficult to treat. Homelessness, substance abuse, and mental illness tend not to improve patient compliance. And yet they closed the TB hospital and moved ahead with plans to hack up the health department. That is when it starts to feel less like neglect and incompetence and more like reckless endangerment. From the time the cases first started showing up to when CDC investigators arrived, the infection had spread beyond the homeless population.

Furthermore, only two-thirds of the active cases could be traced to people and places in Jacksonville where the homeless and mentally ill had congregated. That suggested the TB strain had spread beyond the city’s underclass and into the general population. The Palm Beach Post requested a database showing where every related case has appeared. That database has not been released.

The contempt for the poor by Florida officials is inexecusable. The TB strain (FL 046) has been on the state's radar since 2008. They knew it was a virulent strain. So when there was a sudden explosion of cases in Jacksonville, they slashed services, knowing that it was mostly confined to the homeless population. It is hard to make this sound benign. The only thing that muddies the waters is that they kept the public in the dark and allowed the disease to enter the general population. Maybe they thought it would not spread outside the homeless population or maybe they thought they could get it under control before the public found out about it. It is hard to spin the fact that the state knew a TB outbreak had already killed 13 people and yet did nothing the CDC warned them to do to contain it when it was confined to the homeless population.

Ask yourself one simple question. Would state officials have responded the same way to a deadly infectious disease outbreak in the general population instead of the homeless? Of course not. That would be political suicide.

State officials in Florida can be described as heartless and soulless when it comes to their treatment of the most vulnerable. However, these officials have satisfied some in the Christian community by passing laws to restrict abortion. It is funny how you can call yourself pro-life if you oppose abortion, yet go out of your way to harm the poor, sick, disabled, and old. The abortion rules are a perfect fig leaf for Florida governor Rick Scott who came under fire from a Christian family group in 2010 because of his investments in the porn industry.

According to this Politifact.com report Rick Scott, his family partnership and a trust in his wife’s name own 2 million shares in a company called Quepasa Corporation.

According to this Network Solutions report Quepasa Corp. owns the web site Quepasa.com which according to this May 26, 2010 Market Wire report recruits latino women to be porn models for Quepasa Playboy Mexico. Certainly, the hundreds of wom! en who are not selected by Playboy have a heightened interest in making money from porn and are subsequently more likely to be recruit subjects for other hedonistic venues. Additionally, Quepasa.com includes a section for homosexual sex partner relationship networking.

There are several morals to this story.

(1) Florida is the perfect illustration of America in decline. The state is run by callous and vicious individuals that hide behind a thin veneer of what can only laughably be called "family values."

(2) TB and mean-spirited social policy in Florida are perfect for the bicentennial celebration of the birth of Charles Dickens.

(3) When the dirty work of kicking the poor in the teeth is done by government officials, it allows the rest of us to pretend our hands and conscience are clean.

(4) Policies like those Florida are becoming the rule rather than exception across America.

(5) The mismanagement of the TB outbreak in Florida has received little national exposure beyond this Associated Press story picked up by a few outlets. It is the wrong narrative for an election year.

Quality of life in the womb matters

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health have just published a study looking at the relationship between birth weight and brain development during the first three decades of life. Low birth weight for a full-term infant reflects less than optimal prenatal environment, typically because of the mother's poor nutrition, infections, toxic exposures, and stress. The researchers mapped brain development using brain scans from age 3 to 30. What they found was that low birth weight children had lower brain mass over time in areas critical for complex cognitive function and emotional regulation. In other words, the deck is stacked against low birth weight children in terms of increased risk for impaired learning ability, behavioral problems, and psychiatric disorders.

Thus, using over 1,000 brain scans, across three independent samples, we link subtle differences in prenatal growth, within ranges seen among the majority of human pregnancies, to protracted surface area alterations, that preferentially impact later-maturing associative cortices important for higher cognition. By mapping the sensitivity of postnatal human brain development to prenatal influences, our findings underline the potency of in utero life in shaping postnatal outcomes of neuroscientific and public health importance.

The bottom line is simple. If pregnant women do not receive adequate prenatal care, there is a very good chance their children will suffer because of cognitive and emotional difficulties that appear to persistent into adulthood.

Many claim to be pro-life. If all that means is that you oppose abortion, then you must think God is stupid. Opposing abortion requires no sacrifice. Protecting life starts with making sure all women have  proper nutrition, medical care, and decent living conditions throughout their pregnancy. Those things cost a great deal of money. Caring for the poor, sick, disabled, and old as required by the Lord gets even more expensive. Christ made it very clear that what you did not do for those in need, you did not do for Him.

Hunger that cannot be satisfied

Christ said you cannot chase wealth and God. You cannot lust for riches and love God. Mammon and God are mutually exclusive. They pull you in very different directions. And that comes straight from the Son of God. There is no theological wiggle room in what Jesus said.

The Apostle Paul wrote that love of money is the root of all sorts of evil. Loving money means the Evil One knows you will sell your soul and your asking price.

Given the words of Christ and Paul, it is hard to understand why so few Christians confront greed as a mortal sin. How hard do you have to work to overlook what was said by the Prophets, the Messiah, and the Lord's Disciples? You cannot miss it. But you find legions of Christians bleating about sexual morality, particularly the sexual activities of other people. It is strange to find such outrage over sex and barely a peep about lust for money.

The problem with greed is that it causes you to hurt many people. The victims will include people that work for a company or buy its products. Executives routinely receive bonuses for cutting jobs, salaries, and benefits of employees. The suffering of those workers does not matter. Financial mismanagement, theft, pollution, and waste disrupts the lives of millions. Lust for money makes you glad there are people with less and covet the wealth of those with more. You do not care about anyone but yourself and your family. Everyone else be damned. You cannot follow Christ and have an attitude like that. You cannot serve God and money.

Take a look at Mammon in the news during the past week.

Here we have lies. Duke Energy made false promises to facilitate the purchase of Progress Energy.

"I do not believe that a single director of Progress would have voted for this transaction as structured with the knowledge that the CEO of Duke, Jim Rogers, would remain as the CEO of the combined company," former board member John Mullin III told WSJ.

"In my opinion this is the most blatant example of corporate deceit that I have witnessed during a long career on Wall Street," he continued in a letter shared with The News & Observer, "and as a director of ten publicly traded companies and as a former Trustee of Putnam's numerous mutual funds."

The CEO for a day "walked away with a severance package that could be worth up to $44.4 million."

Here we have theft, lies and even an attempted suicide. An Iowa brokerage firm is fined $700,000 for deceptive sales practices, sued for facilitating a $190,000,000 Ponzi scheme, and then $220,000,000 of customer funds suddenly disappears. The CEO attempts to kill himself, the feds file fraud charges, and the company declares bankruptcy. Tens of thousands of investors have been completely ruined financially by these shenanigans.

Here we have lies and theft on scale "too huge to wrap our mortal heads around." Rate fixing by Barclays and other securities firms on $800 trillion in trades. And it may only be the tip of the iceberg.

Combining the penalties assessed by a trio of U.S. and British regulators, and the roughly $155 million that Barclays spent during the multiyear investigation, this one bank alone has incurred more than $600 million in charges. The bank's CEO, Bob Diamond, has resigned in disgrace, and the familiar Barclays name has been significantly tarnished.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) -- the propped-up bank in which, in a royally cruel twist of fate, British taxpayers hold an 82% stake -- will reportedly be next on the hook with penalties of $233 million for its role in the rate-setting scandal. Swiss bank UBS (UBS) received "conditional immunity" from prosecution last year in return for its cooperation with the Justice Department's ongoing investigation. Meanwhile, authorities on both sides of the Atlantic are reportedly looking into potential misconduct by, among others: Citigroup (C), HSBC (HBC), Deutsche Bank (DB), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Lloyds, and Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi.

The victims include anyone with adjustable rate loans, pension funds, corporations with financed debt, and stockholders. In short, millions of people have been hurt. The Motley Fool asks if "there any corner of our financial markets that can be deemed safe from such reckless and deceptive behavior?" Here is the moral of the story:

Where opportunity and motive coincide for banks to pursue their own agenda through secretive and unsavory means, it seems far safer to presume that they will rather than to trust that they will not.

Lies, theft, and breaking the law is becoming the rule rather than exception.

A quarter of Wall Street executives see wrongdoing as a key to success, according to a survey by whistleblower law firm Labaton Sucharow released on Tuesday.

In a survey of 500 senior executives in the United States and the UK, 26 percent of respondents said they had observed or had firsthand knowledge of wrongdoing in the workplace, while 24 percent said they believed financial services professionals may need to engage in unethical or illegal conduct to be successful.

Sixteen percent of respondents said they would commit insider trading if they could get away with it, according to Labaton Sucharow. And 30 percent said their compensation plans created pressure to compromise ethical standards or violate the law.

Greed and sin go hand in hand. You cannot serve God and Mammon. There is no way to satisfy the hunger created by love of money. So why are Christians silent on all the evils that come from love of money, particularly when it has become a global epidemic? Greed destroys souls and causes suffering across the world. The people with little or nothing are living in despair because of the wretchedness of people with more than they can spend.

Yes, the hogs will be slaughtered (James 5:1-6):

Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.

So why are we, the body of Christ, silent on the morass caused by greed? Are we afraid? Are we blind? Have we been misled into obsessing about sex while ignoring the depravity of Mammon? Whatever the reasons, the Lord will not be amused.

Strange world we live in

It sounds like a scene from a dystopian novel. In the distance stands a glittering palace with lush grounds and shimmering pools. Outside its walls, water is more precious than gold. Armed men stand guard over a maze of pumps and pipes. Through one set of pipes, the palace pumps dry nearby wells and streams. Another set of pipes discharge sewage downstream where it will sicken the peasants desperate for water for their pots and fields, out of sight and mind of the beautiful people frolicking on the palace grounds. The trouble is this is not some fictional cautionary tale. It is an all too common reality.

Some 884 million people lack sufficient access to water and sanitation globally. In many tourism destinations in the global South, lack of infrastructure, government capacity and resources means that communities struggle to meet their daily water needs. . . Meanwhile, neighbouring resorts and hotels consume vast quantities of water in the servicing of guest rooms, landscaped gardens, swimming pools and golf courses.

Tourism Concern, an advocacy organization that promotes ethical conduct in the tourism industry, has just released a new report that documents water rights abuses by popular resorts in developing countries. The report ("Water Equity in Tourism – A Human Right, A Global Responsibility" pdf) examined the water shortages, conflicts, and negative impacts of resorts on local communities. While the study focused on Indonesia, India, and Tanzania, the problems are not confined to these countries.

"While hotels may have the money and resources to ensure their guests enjoy several showers a day, swimming pools, a round of golf, and lush landscaped gardens, neighbouring households, small businesses and agricultural producers can regularly endure severe water scarcity."

It is the perfect brew for exploitation - corrupt local governments, inexpensive beachfront property, big multinational corporations, and rich tourists with money to burn. Grease the palms of a few politicians and the sky is the limit. Developers promise jobs and prosperity, but all the profits flow to resort owners and the local residents are left with water shortages and pollution. Paraphrasing Tony Soprano, money flows uphill and crap flows down.

"The hotels here all have lush lawns and boreholes. But there is contamination of groundwater and the huge consumption of water by hotels lowers the water table. Wells in the neighbouring village have already become saline and unfit for human consumption. These hotels don't benefit us in any way." 

-- Sheela Gracia, local activist in Goa, India

There are so many ethical failures that it is impossible to doubt the banality of evil. Bribes are just the cost of doing business. Corporations like Hyatt and Hilton are just making money by keeping costs low and profit margins large. And the well-heeled tourists are spending their hard-earned cash. Sure, lots of people get hurt, but no one is really to blame.

Rachel Noble, Tourism Concern's director of policy and research, suggests that governments should put people ahead of profits.

"Governments need to provide and enforce clear regulatory frameworks for tourism and water management that puts the water rights of communities first. If governments are serious about using tourism as a means to alleviate poverty and to support sustainable development, marginalised groups and communities, particularly women who usually bear the greatest burden of fetching water, must be empowered to participate in water and tourism decision-making processes. It's time for the tourism sector to take responsibility for its water use and address the wider impacts of its consumption beyond the hotel walls."

She is quite right. All that is required is for government officials to put its people first, particularly the less fortunate, and for corporations to behave ethically and responsibly. Of course, pigs will sprout wings and fly before that ever happens.

 Here is the description of the Grant Hyatt Bali:

Grand Hyatt Bali Hotel is the crown jewel of resorts in Nusa Dua, the luxury stretch of magnificent beachfront on the island of Bali, offering 636 luxury rooms & suites nested in low-rise Balinese villas, most located in 4 villages. Grand Hyatt Bali resort was conceived as a water palace with lakes, landscape gardens and five lagoon or river pools surrounding low-rise Balinese style buildings. Our Bali resort offers the comfort and luxury services of a world class hotel blended with the relaxing tranquillity of a secluded beach resort. Experience total relaxation at Kriya Spa in Bali designed as an exotic 24-villa water palace amid tropical gardens, with spa treatments focusing on the 4 Balinese healing rituals: harmony, purity, energy and bliss. Play at the 18-hole championship Bali Golf & Country Club 5 minutes away or try the variety of water sports available. Pasar Senggol is the Balinese village and night market of our hotel in Nusa Dua hosting cultural shows, food stalls, a handicraft exhibition and bazaar-style market.

I guess they forgot to mention the costs to the local people, but that might get in the way of the "harmony, purity, energy, and bliss" for the privileged. Funny how paradise and hell can be located so very close together. Good thing you can worship both God and Mammon.

When faith and science mix

Probably because some have referred to it as the "God Particle," there has been a fair amount of clucking over the discovery of a subatomic particle thought to be the elusive Higgs boson. Sadly, they missed a chance for awe and wonder.

Brother Guy Consolmagno, a Vatican astronomer, put the discovery of the Higgs boson into proper perspective. Beyond revolutionizing theoretical physics, it sheds light on the rich tapestry of the natural world.

"It indicates that reality is deeper and more rich and strange than our everyday life."

On the 'faith' of scientists:

"No one would have built this enormous experiment, tapping the time and talents of thousands of scientists around the world, without faith they would find something,"

On finding God at work in science:

"My belief in God gives me the courage to look at the physical universe and to expect to find order and beauty. It's my faith that inspires me to do science."

Mature faith is a thing of beauty.

Mission statements

Mission has become a new buzzword among Christians. Beyond the squabbling about whose vision comes closer to eternal truth, there is some obvious value to talk about our mission, particularly as it pertains to our church.

As every introductory business course teaches, no business or organization can succeed without a well-defined mission statement. A good mission statement means you have thought through your objectives. It is the starting point for your business plan.

Scot McKnight has an elegant synopsis of our mission as the body of Christ:

1. It’s about God’s mission in this world.

2. It’s about God’s mission in this world in Christ.

3. It’s about God’s mission in this world in Christ in view of the Age to Come/Kingdom of God.

4. God summons humans to participate in God’s mission by becoming oriented to God’s mission, to others, and to the world — in the context of the (local) church.

The result of this is very, very important: nothing can be called missional until the mission of God is defined, which means nothing can be called missional until it is connected to Jesus and the kingdom of God/the Age to Come, and nothing can be missional if it is not shaped through the local church. Missional gets its start when we discern what God is doing in this world and particularly what God is doing in our community and what God is calling the ecclesia to do in light of that big mission of God.

It is hard to argue with that core mission. It is not our mission; it's God's. It is our privilege and responsibility to be a part of that mission. Our mission is grounded in our local church and the surrounding community. In other words, it is about 'us' in action rather than 'me' in action. The body is more effective in serving God's mission than an uncoordinated collection of body parts.

While all of this makes perfect sense on some level, it does carry a potential pitfall. Suppose our church is grounded in an affluent community. Might we be tempted to think "mission accomplished" if our congregation is Christ-centered, we share God's love with our neighbors, and we are quick to minister to the needs of the few lost or broken souls in our midst?

The parable of the faithful servant in Luke 12 ends with a warning in verse 48:

From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

There is a great temptation to be satisfied if we never look beyond our community. We can satisfy the minimum requirements of mission by caring for our neighbors, but can lose sight of the bigger picture.

Let me illustrate how easy it is to be short-sighted. There has been many discussions of mission in our congregation. Out of these discussions have come innovative ways to serve God and others in our community. Yet, I cannot help but wonder if we are falling short. Falling very short.

Not too far from our community is a larger urban area plagued by poverty and violence. No one living in the Chicago area can claim to be ignorant of the problems and despair. It constantly makes the local news. Yet, you have to ask why so few Christians outside these broken communities have come to help. It feels wrong.

How is it that people supposedly in tune with God's mission through the Holy Spirit can turn a deaf ear to people crying out for relief from poverty, violence, and shear hopelessness? I cannot get my head around that. Have we become so well-practiced in disobedience that we can tune out the cries of those in desperate need? Easy, breezy following of the Holy Spirit. As long as we knock on a few doors, display our belief in Christ on every social media, attend church services, tithe, and vote for correct political candidates and issues, our ticket to paradise is punched. That smells funny to me. It does not sound like Christ's mission. It does nothing to repair the world. Tikkun Olam.

Rev. Julian DeShazier, senior minister of University Church of Chicago, has written about the violence and despair in some Chicago communities in Sojourners magazine. Here is how brother Julian introduces the nightmare conditions in some parts of the city:

How violence begins is mostly understood. Here’s the widely accepted equation:

Poverty + Ghetto-ization + a Culture of Violence + Gangs + Access to Guns + Drugs = Violence

On the left side of the equation, everything seems true. Many Chicagoans experience a scarcity of resources; many of them are black and poor and live together (if you didn’t know, Chicago is one of the most segregated cities in the nation: everybody has a “town,” and the boundaries are invisible but strict). America does seems to have a fixation on Chicago’s rich history of mobbishness and corruption (thank you VH1 for “Mob Wives: Chicago”), and there is a curiously high level of access to guns in Illinios (perhaps because of too strict gun laws?). Plus, the paradigm of the Street Gang as Corporation began in Chicago, drugs are everywhere, and most if not all of the violent crimes in Chicago are related to one or a combination of the factors on the left side of the equation.

Rev. DeShazier is also a hip-hop musician on top of his clerical duties, who performs as J.Kwest. Here is how VerbalKwest describes the situation in rhythm in the music video for "Crazy Streets."




Many of the lines in that song stood out for me.

"If don't nobody help then I am army of one, Army of two because I ride with the Son."

So where is the rest of the army of the Son? Of all the people that call themselves followers of Christ living nearby, how come so few have helped? If our mission is be apart of the healing of this broken world, then how can we neglect such suffering? Someone explain that to me.

"If you see God and happen to speak, Tell Him it is crazy in these streets."

God knows it is crazy in the streets. God is not pleased that more are not listening to the cries of these people and coming together to help. But for the people on the streets, they do not believe God hears their cries.

"It is hard right now to start judging But when you get enough pain And there has been enough tears You start to wondering if God still loves us, You start to wondering if God do hate us" (2:22 -2:30)

What Rev. DeShazier and others are doing is to minister to the psychological and spiritual wounds of the people in these communities. They have created a program where ...:

... young adults (most of them high-school dropouts and barely escaping or trying to exit gang/drug culture) now have a music studio where they write, record, and own their own music. This sounds like a record label, but it’s not. We ask them to write about what is meaningful to them; I don’t judge content. After recording, we talk about how they chose to say what they said. Stories come out. Trauma is exposed. It is uncomfortable at first, but eventually they know they are in safe space. We record songs as one way to expose trauma. And it has been working. Young folks are earning their GED’s and seeing beyond the limited scope of the barrel. They believe in something bigger than their reality, and it is transforming their reality.

Everyone needs to hear those stories, especially those of us that follow Christ. Bending an ear, opening our hearts, and lending our hands to help these people is unquestionably part of our mission as Christians.

The problems are severe, but God did not make this mess. We did. And we damn well better fix it or the Lord will demand to know why.

Prof. McKnight says a major part of our mission is to become oriented to God's mission. You cannot just learn about what God's plan is. Knowing that plan requires action. It requires rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands dirty in the mess we have made on this earth.

While we on the subject of mission, perhaps we should question how our religious leaders have failed to energize Christians to the problems described by Rev. DeShazier in the Sojourners article.

They are experiencing violence as perpetrator, victim, and witness, and they are no less exposed to the trauma. The trauma of being poor. The trauma of being hated by your government (if education policy is any indication of this). The trauma of broken families and unresolved relationships. The trauma of feeling foreign in other parts of the city. The trauma of degradation at even the most superficial level: the only popular rappers are the drug dealers/addicts/selfish/near-prostitutes, etc.

Perhaps we have not been able to fully participate in God's mission because too many of our religious leaders are distracting us with manufactured outrage over issues like contraception instead of listening to the cries of people in need.

Orientation to mission is not enough. We must act.

Legislator assumes "religious" only meant "Christian"

Valarie Hodges, a state legislator in Louisiana, enthusiastically supported Governor Jindal's plan to divert money from public schools to religious private schools. That was until she learned that religious schools were not limited to those with Christian-based charters.

“I actually support funding for teaching the fundamentals of America’s Founding Fathers’ religion, which is Christianity, in public schools or private schools,” the District 64 Representative said Monday.

“I liked the idea of giving parents the option of sending their children to a public school or a Christian school,” Hodges said.

After the initiative was signed by the governor, a Muslim school applied for inclusion in the voucher system. Representative Hodges was shocked and outraged.

“Unfortunately it will not be limited to the Founders’ religion,” Hodges said. “We need to insure that it does not open the door to fund radical Islam schools. There are a thousand Muslim schools that have sprung up recently. I do not support using public funds for teaching Islam anywhere here in Louisiana.”

Freedom of religion means every belief system has the same rights and privileges in our society. It is not complicated. Hodges has been brainwashed into believing that our founders intended Christianity to be the official religion of America.

Perhaps a more fundamental issue is why Christians in our society expect rights and privileges they are unwilling to extend to others. There is nothing particularly Christ-like in that attitude.

Imagine if things like this were the norm . . .

A famous church in Lynchburg has responded to the needs of people in the community affected by recent violent storms and oppressive heat. From the Christian Post:

"Our church staff and more than 450 volunteers have rallied together to provide a comprehensive relief center on the church campus," said Jonathan Falwell, senior pastor. "We are offering water, ice, meals, overnight sleeping areas, medical services, shower facilities, cooling areas and even a section for pets."

. . .

The church has also opened its doors on a 24/7 basis allowing nearly 500 people to stay overnight and take advantage of sleeping centers, air conditioning and electricity. Affected residents of Virginia and surrounding states had to go for days without any power after the strong coastal storms this past weekend.

Imagine if every time there was a disaster or hardship, churches threw open their doors to help. Imagine if people associated Christianity with love and compassion rather than with preoccupation with sex, namely what other people do behind closed doors. Imagine if people began to believe in the love of God because Christians were the best examples of how to love others, including people they consider enemies. Instead of loving war. Instead of bigotry and hatred. Instead of trying to politicize God.

Is not our mission to be an effective witness for the love of God? If we truly believed that, then stories like the one in the Christian Post would not be newsworthy. People would expect Christians acting in love instead of being surprised by it.

Beyond Christian denominations and sects

David J. Lose makes an observation about the body of Christ that many of us feel:

Bottom line: while I love my denominational heritage and am all for a robust theological identity and spirited theological conversation, I’d give up denominational identity and structure in a heartbeat if it meant a more unified, comprehensible, and compelling witness to the Gospel.

He also has the best answer for what needs to happen:

But I do know it’s time to raise these questions and initiate a conversation about mutual collaboration and mission that runs far beyond anything our parents or grandparents would have dreamed possible.

In other words, there are no easy answers, but putting our heads together and having a honest discussion is necessary.

Over the course of my life, I have been a member of Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, United Church of Christ, and evangelical churches. Each, in its time and place, was a blessing. I have also worshipped with friends at houses of worship for virtually every other flavor of Christianity in existence. I heard music and watched rituals that moved me. I heard sermons that inspired me. And none of it changed how I felt about God. At the end of the day, I follow Christ. That is the only brand that matters.

Pastor Lose identifies five reasons why denominations and sects are falling short of a body that serves Christ as well as possible.

1) Denominations are confusing in a post-Christian world and often an impediment to mission.

2) The differences between the major denominations are relatively minor.

3) Inordinate amounts of funding are spent on maintaining denominational structures and bureaucracies, money that could be spent on mission.

4) Political differences outstripped theological ones decades ago.

5) Denominational affiliation often represents the triumph of ethnic and cultural loyalties over theological convictions.

All of those criticisms ring true. Diversity is a blessing unless some pretend to be morally superior. Bureaucracies and hierarchies are more about obedience to religious authorities rather than to God. In a triumph of Mammon, the body of Christ has been torn apart by secular politics and political ideation. Tribal mentality creates in-groups and out-groups. In short, Christ often takes a backseat to our own desires, attitudes, and values because these are the forces that give rise to denominations and sects.

Pastor Lose is basically asking how we can search our souls without gazing at our navels or strapping on body armor. The fact that many seem to be thinking along the same lines means that there is a critical mass for action. The fact that younger generations are walking away from faith means we collectively have fallen short of effective witness for God's love. The fact that we face enormous challenges because of overpopulation, resource depletion, economic injustices, and poor stewardship of God's creation means more will be spiritually broken and living in despair.

It is a curse to live in interesting times. It can also be a blessing if we can find a way to work together.