Ministry

Martin Luther King Jr.

Yesterday was Racial Justic Day in many churches in the United States and today is Martin Luther King Day in the U.S.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born January 15, 1929. He was a Baptist minister and a prominent civil rights advocate. King was the youngest person to receive a Nobel Peace Prize when it awarded to him in 1964. He was assassinated April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.

One of his most famous speeches was delivered at the Lincoln Memorial August 28, 1963. Often referred to as the “I have a dream” speech, it is one of the most significant and powerful speeches of the 20th century. A portion of the speech follows. Links to the full speech and an audio file are at the end of this post.

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Sunstar Over Turnagain Arm, Alaska. Photo © Jim Doty Jr.

May the wonder and joy of the season be yours.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Irena Sendler, a Catholic social worker, saved 2500 Jewish children from the Nazi death camps during WWII. Like Schindler, she kept a list. She hoped to reunite the children with their parents after the war. Unfortunately, most of the parents had been killed at Treblinka. She was captured by the Gestapo and tortured but she never gave up the names of her helpers or the children. Sentenced to death, a guard was bribed and she escaped. With a new name, she went back to her work. She died in 2008 at the age of 98.

Her story is a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation tonight. Hopefully, it will be posted here for later online viewing. The movie is adapted from the book The Mother of the Holocaust Children” by Anna Mieszkowska.

You can learn more about Irena Sendler here and here and here.

More after the page break.
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It’s bad. It attacks Windows computers. (Mac’s are safe from this particular worm.)

Go here to download and run Microsoft’s most recent Malicious Software Removal Tool:

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/viruses/worms/conficker.mspx

NPR’s Terry Gross recently interviewed New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman.  A link to listen to the interview is here.

Ehrman is the author of Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don’t Know About Them).

You don’t need to agree with all of Ehrman’s conclusions (there is significant range of scholarly opinion about the authorship of the four gospels), but he is right that each gospel should be read as an independent look at Jesus’ life.

I have long felt that it is unfair to the gospels to try to homogenize all of them into one story.  The gospels truly come alive as each one is “heard” as a unique work with it’s own unique “voice”.

The Jesus that most people know is the Jesus of Matthew’s gospel with it’s stories, miracles, and sermons, with a few choice stories added from Luke (for example, Jesus’ birth in Luke 2), combined with and a few select quotes and stories from John (most notably John 3:16, selections from John 14-17, and the story of the woman and Jesus in John 8:1-11).  This doesn’t do justice to the gospels, or to Jesus.

A seminary professor once told an interviewer that he takes one month out of each year to spend in an extensive study of one of the gospels. He had been at this for nearly 40 years which means he had studied each of the gospels about 10 times.  When asked why he kept doing this, the professor said “I would prefer that my students drink from a living stream rather a stagnant pool.”

The practice of studying one of the gospels each year sounds like a worthy practice for all Christians, not just seminary professors.

Looking for a good book to guide your studies?  I give my highest recommendation to Raymond Brown’s Introduction to the New Testament. It is my favorite introduction to the New Testament (and I have several).  More after the page break.

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According to the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS 2008), sponsored by Trinity College, the percentage of Americans who say they have no religion has been increasing:

1990 – 8%
2001 – 14.2%
2008 – 15%

ARIS 2008 is the third in a series of landmark studies of religious trends in the United States.

The percentage of Christians in American has declined from 86.2% of the population in 1990 to 76.7% in 2008. Other religions have increased from 3.3% to 3.9%.

Mainline Protestant denominations have experienced the sharpest declines from 18.7% of the population in 1990 to 12.9%.  The percentage of Catholics has dropped slightly from 26.2% of the population in 1990 to 25.1% in 2008. The percentage of Americans identifying themselves as “Evangelical” or “born again” has increased.

The number of Americans who believe in a personal God has dropped to 69.5% of the population.  2.3% don’t believe in God, 4.3% are agnostic, and 12.1% believe in a higher power.

There have been significant demographic shifts. Northern New England has now replaced the Pacific Northwest as the least religious section of the country. Vermont leads the nation with 34% of its population claiming to have no religion. Catholicism has declined in New England and increased in California and Texas.

Some religions are doing much better than others in the 18-29 age group:

Religious preferences have shifted somewhat among racial an ethnic groups:

You can read summary articles at the ARIS web site and at Yahoo News.The full 26 page ARIS 2008 report and all of the included tables (a few of which have been included in this brief review) makes for a fascinating study.  You can download a pdf copy here.

Snow glistens in the last light of dusk.
Distant clouds glow with the fading light from the sun, long since set.

A chill fills the calm night air.
Stars twinkle in the deepening winter sky.

The crunch, crunch, crunch of gravel on the path.
Lights come on in the distance. Warm and inviting.

Home. Family. Friends. Dinner and the opening of gifts.

Christmas!

News outlets today are reporting that a serious security flaw in Internet Explorer (versions IE5 through IE8) makes it possible for hackers to steal the online passwords that you use on the internet. Virtually all security experts are urging users of Internet Explorer are urged to use a different web browser. Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari are recommended as alternatives. Please read the whole story here.

Microsoft “cannot recommend people switch due to this one flaw”, but don’t let this questionable statement deter you from protecting yourself while you are online. Believe the independent experts, not the company that is worried about losing you to competitive software (that also happens to be free).

In a recent post I reported on a study that showed that Firefox is safer than Interent Explorer. In 2006, Internet Explorer users were are risk a whopping 78% of the time while Firefox users were at risk only 2% of the time. Read more here.

For several years now I have been using and recommending Firefox because it is quicker, better, and safer than Internet Explorer. If you haven’t switched, do so now and don’t switch back until Microsoft get’s their act together.

You can find Firefox at the Mozilla website and Opera here.

Freedom from Want – Painting © Norman Rockwell

It is time for my annual Thanksgiving post, and yes, it is the same as last year.

When I was growing up, we spent many a Thanksgiving and Christmas at grandpa’s house. Thanksgiving was a much anticipated and happy time. We would often leave Pueblo on Wednesday afternoon after dad got home from work. It was a long 7 hour drive to Haxtun in those pre-interstate highway days, so it would be really late by the time we arrived.

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Short version:

Don’t talk to anyone about the movie GOD ON TRIAL, and don’t read any reviews until you see this movie for yourself.

And you MUST see this movie.

Long version:

I just spent an hour on the phone with one of my friends (who happens to be an agnostic) discussing a movie I came across by accident last night on PBS – Masterpiece. I missed the first part of the movie, but I was immediately drawn into “God On Trial”, and found the movie to be quite extraordinary. When I was asked, “What’s New?”, I just had to tell my friend about the movie.

In a nutshell, a group of Jews at Auschwitz decide to put God on trial for violating the covenant with Israel. This happens on “selection day” when the camp doctor will decide who will be selected to go to the gas chambers and who will continue working.

As the critics say, the discussion around theological issues is powerful and at times “brutal”. It is all in there. Theodicy, free will, history, tradition. All made very real by the pain, uncertainty, and awfulness of their situation.

I give this movie my highest recommendation. The movie is now on my top ten list. I can’t wait to find or buy the movie and see the beginning.  It’s a bit slow in spots while characters are introduced and the trial gets up and running, but the farther through the trial you go, the stronger the movie gets.

You can Google: “God on Trial PBS” and find several reviews but I urge you NOT to read the reviews. It will spoil some of the most wonderful, painful, and poignant moments in the movie. (I posted selections from a couple of reviews below.) Suffice it to say that the critics speak very highly of this movie. This movie is not for the faint of heart. It is not for those who can’t tolerate hard hitting questions about God and religion. “Rote” Christians (who want to be told what to believe) will not like this movie. If you are insecure in your beliefs or if you don’t like theological discussions that deal with life’s painful realities, this movie is not for you. My guess is that most of the people who read this blog would find the movie challenging and moving.

Thinking people (believers, agnostics, and atheists) will find the movie remarkable. As just one example, I am so tempted to write about Lieble’s rebuttal of free will, but I won’t spoil it for you. You need to hear his story in the full emotional context of the drama. Despite Lieble’s rebuttal, I still believe in free will, or “agency” as some call it, but his story is compelling.

If I taught theology (or Hebrew scriptures), I would show GOD ON TRIAL to every class somewhere in mid to late semester. It deals with important questions that every religion and every thinking religious/spiritual person should grapple with.

More info is on the PBS web site.

I would suggest you DON’T read the SYNOPSIS at the PBS web site and let the powerful moments in the movie surprise you.  Feel free to read the section on CHARACTERS before watching the movie.

You can watch the movie online, but you will need a fast broadband connection. It will only be available online from Nov 10-16, 2008.

As a historical sidelight, the movie is based on play that is based on a persistent story, probably apocryphal, that a group of prisoners at Auschwitz actually did put God on trial. I’ve been told that Elie Wiesel refers to a similar prison camp trial.
There are RBD lists of books – books so good and so important that you simply must “Read Before Dying”. This is a WBD movie.

I will climb down off my soapbox.

One last thing, just in case you were wondering. As a result of our conversation, my agnostic friend (who never goes to movies with religious themes) wants to see this movie.

Buy the DVD from PBS

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George Washington, first president of the United States of America.

It is the 4th of July.  It is a day of celebration in the United States, where the role of religion in American public life has been and will continue to be a matter of debate. I’ve written about this before in an article about the Separation of Church and State. The “founding fathers” were a remarkably diverse group with a variety of perspectives, both religious and non-religious. George Washington believed religion and morality were “indispensable supports” for “political prosperity”. Other founding fathers had different views.

From George Washington’s Farewell Address – 1796:

“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. . . . .

“Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be, that good policy does not equally enjoin it ? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it ? Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue ? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices?”

Source: The Avalon Project at Yale Law School

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Cemetery, The Presidio, San Francisco, California. Photo © Jim Doty, Jr.

Memorial Day began unofficially in a variety of places as people felt the need to recognize those who gave their lives in the Civil War. Memorial Day was officially declared on May 5, 1868, when General John Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic ordered a day of observance when all Union and Confederate Graves at Arlington National Cemetery would be decorated with flowers on May 30, 1868. One state after another adopted May 30 as a Memorial Day observance until all of the Northern states had adopted May 30 by 1890. Many Southern states had picked different days to honor the Confederate dead.

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Freedom from Want – Painting © Norman Rockwell

When I was growing up, we spent many a Thanksgiving and Christmas at grandpa’s house. Thanksgiving was a much anticipated and happy time. We would often leave Pueblo on Wednesday afternoon after dad got home from work. It was a long 7 hour drive to Haxtun in those pre-interstate highway days, so it would be really late by the time we arrived.

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Robert Alter, a professor of Hebrew at the University of California Berkeley, created a new translation of Psalms with brief commentary, published as The Book of Psalms. Some of his renditions are sure to raise eyebrows.

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The news article is at Beliefnet.