Moving on Again

I just don't have enough patience to wait for my entire blogger account to get converted to the new beta system, so I went ahead and started a NEW BLOG AGAIN today. So far, I like the ease of use of beta quite well. See you over there, if you have the tolerance to make the move...

Upside Down?

Not much time to blog right now,

except to say, "what's going on in Lebanon?"

If I am hearing and reading the news correctly, the Hezbellah is giving out charitable funds to help people in need in Lebanon and Israel is still involved in air raids in direct defiance of the UN ceasefire agreement. Lord, have mercy.

Global Cluelessness Quiz

First of all, I must profess my surprised elation at the acceptance of the U.N. ceasefire agreement by Israli PM Ehud Olmort. [Side note: remember that Ehud dude from the book of Judges? He was the left-handed fellow that was able to sneak a knife into the king's quarters and drive it so far into the king's belly that the handle disappeared!] After reading that Olmort prayed with Pat Robertson for "victory for Israel" a few days ago, I guess I dismissed the prime minister as a one-dimensional Zionist. Glad to know that, unlike Mr. Robertson, Olmort apparently values peace more than heralding in the End Times. [Side note #2: don't get me started on my Pat Robertson rant. It's not pretty.] And now our prayers can be directed towards full compliance with the treaty's regulations on both sides. How beautiful was it that the U.S. and France worked out the ceasfire proposal together? Am I allowed to eat french fries again now?



Enough of that. I just discovered the Reuter's webpage a few days ago. I have been devouring it during my little periods of domestic loafing. If you ever wanted to understand any of these complex global issues that the news media occassionally reports, but never really explains, this is THE place to get the background stories. I just took this 6-question quiz about the most dangerous places in the world for children. It was a fun way to be introduced to my own ignorance. If, like me, you wanna pull your head out of the sand and try to be an informed global citizen, check it out for yerself.

Don't take my word for it.

Since the most daring blog I've ever published got co-opted by a would-be-messiah (see previous post), here's an entry from today's blog over at Mother Jones. While your over there, you should also read this and this. Hopefully these can make my point for me.

If only.

If only Tim LaHaye were right. I must admit that the idea of an ultra-fundamentalist pretribulation, premillinialist interpretation of the biblical "end times" has great appeal these days. I look at the daily news and want to just sigh "to hell with it all!" regularly enough. If I had a theology that could actually justify such an arrogant and seperatist emotion, life would be so much simpler. If I could cross a big black "x" over all those portions of the New Testament that speak about loving the world, serving others, caring for the poor and mistreated, working towards the redemption and re-Creation of the cosmos (heaven and earth), and especially having to endure the kind of trials that placed Jesus on the death timbers; and if I could press my big yellow highlighter over the words in Revelation that reinforce a detached and inhumane position that actually looks forward to God's Wrath being poured out on others while I magically get sucked into the sky with the Rapture Tractor Beam, then I could confidently root for the greatest super-power-duo in history -- the unstoppable military and economic Titan, the United States of America, holding hands with God's chosen nation, the very people that carried the ark of the covenant out into battle (attached with poles, so nobody gets fried) in order to exterminate it's idol-worshipping enemies!

But the folly of this recently-subscribed-to cultural and theological phenomenon is being exploited in this latest round of Middle East turmoil. Now, on the world stage, we behold a particular brand of proudly self-proclaimed Christians (and evangelicals) making the executive decisions for the U.S. to assist Israel in the abysmally cowardly act of bombing Lebanese civilians, the majority of whom are Arab Christians. The powerful "New Testament people of God" have gotten in bed with the "Old Testament people of God" in an all-out effort that effectively pronounces an apocalypse of terror on the meek and unpowerful "New Testament people of God!" If we were to truly look at the thematic emphases of the Scriptures and then superimpose a Tim LaHaye-esque "look for the comtemporary signs" approach to Revelation, we would find that the U.S.A. is the Beast, or the Whore of Babylon, or the Anti-Christ, or some combination of all three. God would be on the side of the defenseless Christians in Lebanon and against the imperial forces of greed and violence that have become America and Israel.

But what if God decided to change his mind and take a LaHaye-ian approch after all? "You know what, other two parts of the Trinity, that whole fundy rapture thing has got to be one of the most egregious abuses of my Holy Word since the Inquisition and the Nazi regime. But I'm so sick of the way so-called believers carry on in Our Name, killing each other and ignoring their roles as ambassadors of light and love for the world, I think I'll just do it their way after all. Son, get on down there with Your angels and pull out all those beautiful children that have suffered for Our sake, who have practiced peace and self-sacrificing love. Then get back up here and let's give the rest of 'em a universal bath of blood and fire. And no more rainbows."

Newfound Freedom / Energy to Air it Out

I've been working only three days a week for the past month, stretching out my vacation time in staying home and helping Jolie with the baby and his brother. My social life has all but vanished, as anyone with a newborn will readily acknowledge. This is frustrating mainly because I feel so deeply that the primary reason why I am HERE NOW has to do with befriending people that have sidestepped the Christian mainstream. So, while I'm unable to act on that conviction as fervently during this season, I've suddenly got a little bit of time to blog [the correlation between being a homebody and being a good blogger is quite high, in my opinion].

Ironically, I've pretty much cast off any potential readership over the past few months -- constantly changing my address, blogging infrequently, literally telling people that I'm done altogether. Now that I've got some time and gumption, I'm faced with the lonely reality that I'm blogging this time by and for myself. So, imaginary reader, let's get this going with some no holds barred bloginatin'...

Quote of the Day / Quote of the Week

We have a new person working in the art department at Central Market. Until yesterday, I'd only had a few briefs words with her. Yesterday, though, I learned that she had lived in Beirut until only a few years ago. She and her mother live in the U.S., but she has a lot of family and even more friends that are suddenly trapped in a war zone. As you might imagine, it has been increasingly challenging to keep up telephone contact. So far, to her knowledge, everyone is all right, she says. Unexpectedly, she turns around to face me and says in an alarming calm tone,

You know what's so f**ked up about all this? I live over here in the U.S. in safety and prosperity while my taxes are given to Israel so they can bomb the f**k out of my family!

This prompts me to finish reading this week's e-newletter from Sojourner magazine. Here's a rather long quotation they have linked from an online article at Christianity Today's website:

Sunday morning, I woke up to the news that an Israeli air strike hit a residential building used as a shelter in the southern Lebanese town of Qana, killing and wounding more than 65 people, including 30 infants and young children. According to tradition, Qana is the village where Jesus Christ performed his first miracle by turning water into wine (John 2).

Now I hear of fellow Christians who enjoy seeing the turning of water into blood in the name of end-time prophecy. Their call should rather be to turn water into wine of gladness, peace, and life. Are we looking for the presence of Christ in Lebanon and Israel or for the presence of U.S. smart bombs?

I recently received an e-mail from a friend who lives in Washington, D.C., informing me that a sign displayed in front of an independent evangelical church simply states: "Go Israel!" This news came as I learned that the father of one of the six-year-old students at our school had been killed in an air strike as he went to get bread for his family. For the sake of the children's tears, for the sake of the children's blood in this terrible war, for the sake of the children's smiles, please say and write: "Go for peace!" "Go for reconciliation!" "Go for love!" Go for a cease-fire!"

Ms. Rice, I heard recently that you are an ardent evangelical. I have always believed that evangelicals are peacemakers. They are those who hold fast to the gospel of peace and reconciliation. Please answer the above children's prayer. Help me at least not to lose faith in calling myself an evangelical.

Until such prayers and requests are answered, we continue at J.L. Schneller Institute in West Beqaa to pray and to work for peace. We continue providing care to hundreds of displaced people who took shelter at our institution and to others in neighboring areas. Please keep us and all of Lebanon in your prayers.

pictures you don't want to see

When Headline News and Lectionary Readings Meet

Read this in our morning prayer today:

Matthew 26:51 Then they came on him—grabbed him and roughed him up. One of those with Jesus pulled his sword and, taking a swing at the Chief Priest's servant, cut off his ear.

52-54Jesus said, "Put your sword back where it belongs. All who use swords are destroyed by swords. Don't you realize that I am able right now to call to my Father, and twelve companies—more, if I want them—of fighting angels would be here, battle-ready? But if I did that, how would the Scriptures come true that say this is the way it has to be?"

How is it that we have nuanced and backpeddled so fervently for 2000 years that followers of Jesus can't hear the plainspoken imperative any more to absorb violence rather than to wage warfare and retaliation? This imperative is one of -- if not the most -- uniformly agreed upon ethical emphases in the New Testament, resounding from the Sermon on the Mount to the hammering of nails at Golgotha to the succession of martyrdom from Stephen, Paul, and the Apostles all the way through to the present time, and finally completed with the image of the Victor in Revelation covered in blood -- not the blood of his enemies, but the blood of His own torture -- defeating the powers of violence and greed once and for all.

May Your Kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven. Make haste, Prince of Peace to establish Your reign in the Middle East. Vindicate the needless deaths of innocent children throughout the world. And comfort those who mourn.