Day of Prayer for Children at Risk

It's pictures like these that I don't like to look at. Grief that we feel when we see children suffer only intensifies once you have a child of your own. It's an atrocity gone unmentioned, that as rich industrialized countries spend Billions bailing out greed and excess, millions of children suffer and die from debilitating but preventable diseases. And, as wars wars continue to be waged across the world we need to remember the innocent children caught in the middle. Even in my own city approximately 1000 teens are homeless, addicted, and exploited.

A story from my neighborhood...


The sadness and anger that wells up inside of us calls for justice. Yet, from where will this justice come from? Today we pray--Lord, how long?

I Am the One

I am the one pondering under the tree.
I am the one with salty-dog hands.
I am the one collecting the oppressor’s bounty.
I am the one sliding carefully through the night cover.
I am the one worried about dinner time.
I am the one chaffing at outsiders.
I am the one scared of the wind.
I am the one sinking in the sea.
I am the one asking, “Are we there yet.”
I am the one exulting self importance.
I am the one annoyed by the pitter patter of little feet.
I am the one indignant over spilled milk.
I am the one erecting buildings to score brownie points.
I am the son of Zebedee seeking a better seat.
I am the one with a better agenda.
I am the one asleep at the switch.
I am the one clutching the money.
I am the one with the cold dry lips on your cheek.
I am the one holding the bloody sword.
I am the one running away.
I am the one hiding in the darkness.
I am the one with a friend of convenience.
I am the one whose ears fret announcement of the rising sun.
I am the one weeping from a distance.

Hello, my name is Brian

The End of Christian America

The End of Christian America is the title of a Newsweek article out this today, written by the astute Jon Meacham. Meacham states clearly what many of us have been feeling in our bones the entirety of our adult lives.

Meacham, a Christian, narrates well the shift in cultural/political landscape--towards a Post-Christian America. He rightly observes that this subtle shift does not mean the end of religion or faith in politics, but a new aliment--or perhaps a new paradigm for religion in public life. Meacham doesn't try to prescribe this new reality. He merely points that something his happening.

Many of us who live in major North American urban centres, or have our feet firmly planted in emerging generations will feel no shock associated with "The End..." For most of us it already happened.

Ironically enough many of us feel like we are wired for the new era. Our way of life is submerged these new waters. The gospel of Jesus speaks as clearly and as powerfully as it has in any age. We are delighted to be on the journey. This new matrix does not scare us. We do not fear. In fact the possibilities and opportunities are expansive.

Jon, your article has been a long-time-coming.

The Kingdom of God is like...

Bono on the First Christmas--Good Stuff.

On Christmas Eve I went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. ...It had dawned on me before, but it really sank in: the Christmas story. The idea that God, if there is a force of Love and Logic in the universe, that it would seek to explain itself is amazing enough. That it would seek to explain itself and describe itself by becoming a child born in straw poverty and manure... a child, I just thought: “Wow!” Just the poetry. Unknowable love, unknowable power, describes itself as the most vulnerable. There it was. I was sitting there, and ...tears came down my face, and I saw the genius of this, utter genius of picking a particular point in time and deciding to turn on this. Because that’s exactly what we were talking about earlier: love needs to find form, intimacy needs to be whispered. To me, it makes sense. It’s actually logical. It’s pure logic. Essence has to manifest itself. It’s inevitable. Love has to become an action or something concrete. It would have to happen.

New Mission Possible Video

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Meister Eckhart

“Truly, it is in darkness that one finds the light, so when we are in sorrow, then this light is nearest of all to us”

“To be full of things is to be empty of God. To be empty of things is to be full of God.”

How Fundamentalists Became Evangelicals

Another great Huffington Post article that takes on the issue of evangelical political diversity. I had an interesting conversation with a friend the other day about politics and evangelicalism. He rightly observed, while there are many differences within the evangelical community, the media just does not have the time nor the nuance to tease it out. While most evangelicals will likely remain part of the Republican voting block November 4th. Many more than any pundent expects will cast an alternative vote. Case in point (conjecture not a vaid poll), most of my evangelical friends will vote for Obama. During the ramp-up to Gulf war II my congregation split 70/30 against the war--before it began. This shift among younger evangelicals (those who are not literalists) is real.

Eureka! Here is a journalist attempting to tackle the subject matter. He even goes so far to explain the difference between a literalist and plenary interpretation.

Have a look here

David Brooks on Palin and Obama

David Brooks is probably my favorite conservative columnist. He was William Buckley Jr's protege. He has written a couple very interesting and provocative books, Bobos in Paradise, and On Paradise Drive, the latter which investigates American suburban culture.

Huffington Post reported on a recent interview he gave at the Atlantic magazine's redesign unveil. He gives one of the most fascinating takes on Obama, and describes Palin as a "fatal cancer to the Rebublican Party." I am completely baffled how conservative evangelical Christians have fallen head over heals in love with Palin. Brooks gets it right. My personal view--if Palin represents the future of the Rebublican Party, it is a party not worthy of existence.

Here is what Brooks says about Obama

"Obama has the great intellect. I was interviewing Obama a couple years ago, and I'm getting nowhere with the interview, it's late in the night, he's on the phone, walking off the Senate floor, he's cranky. Out of the blue I say, 'Ever read a guy named Reinhold Niebuhr?' And he says, 'Yeah.' So i say, 'What did Niebuhr mean to you?' For the next 20 minutes, he gave me a perfect description of Reinhold Niebuhr's thought, which is a very subtle thought process based on the idea that you have to use power while it corrupts you. And I was dazzled, I felt the tingle up my knee as Chris Matthews would say."

Brooks continues, "And the other thing that does separate Obama from just a pure intellectual: he has tremendous powers of social perception. And this is why he's a politician, not an academic. A couple of years ago, I was writing columns attacking the Republican congress for spending too much money. And I throw in a few sentences attacking the Democrats to make myself feel better. And one morning I get an email from Obama saying, 'David, if you wanna attack us, fine, but you're only throwing in those sentences to make yourself feel better.' And it was a perfect description of what was going through my mind. And everybody who knows Obama all have these stories to tell about his capacity for social perception."

Catch the entire article here

Smart Blog, Interesting Takes

I've had the blog of Dr. Robert Reich on my Google reader for over a year now. I think he's one of the more prudent and insightful analysts when it comes to economic issues. Reich was Secretary of Labor during the Clinton administration and is now an adviser to the Obama campaign. So, he for sure has a political team he calls his own. Yet, if you follow him I think you'll be impressed by his realistic and down to earth takes. Check it out!