KA-BOOM ~ American Military Superiority

This is a picture of a 15,000 kilaton explosion. This is probably the summit of all fears. Below I will work through the data given in Brian McLaren's book Everything Must Change.

"We have about 50% of the world's wealth, but only 6.3% of its population.....Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity." ~ George Kennon, 1948, one of the American government's leading foreign policy planners of the 20th century.

"So in terms of the suicide machine's three mechanisms, we could say it rather baldly and boldly like this: the purpose of the US security system is to maintain the inequity of US prosperity. Or, put alternatively, to maintain and expand the American Empire." ~ Brian McLaren on the above quote from Everything Must Change, pg. 164.

Let's examine what McLaren is saying in the list below:

1. In the 2006 American military budget, our expeditures were 21 times larger than diplomacy and foreign aid combined.

2. The US is dead last among the most developed nations in terms of foreign aid as a percentage of gross domestic product.

3. 10% of the US military budget reinvested in foreign aid and development could care for the needs of the entire earth's poor.

4. 1/2 of 1% of the US military budget would cut hunger in Africa in half by 2015.

5. The US, Russia, UK, France and China provide 86.7% of the global arms exports (sometimes to their avowed enemies).

6. America produces 53.4 of all the world's weapons.

7. 80% of the top buyers of our weapons are countries we have labeled as undemocratic and rejecting human rights, such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

8. In 1999 the US supplied arms to 92% of the conflicts in progress on the planet, often supplying both sides.

9. From 1998 to 2001, the US, Britain, and France earned more from selling arms to developing nations than they gave to those nations in aid.

10. "Every year small arms kill more people than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki put together. Many more people are injured, terrorized or driven from their homes by armed violence." ~ Desmond Tutu

11. In the 20th century, 43 million military personnel were killed in war, and 62 million civilians.

12. The US military budget in 2003 was larger than the next fifteen nations combined. By 2006 it had swelled by 49% over its 2000 levels, not including expenses for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

13. Hidden costs not included in the figuring above have to do with the "brain drain" of using the best engineers, scientists, and thinkers developing non-productive assets.

14. In 2004 global military expenses exceeded $1 trillion while serious international terrorist attacks rose from 175 to 655.

15. From 1948 to 1990 the US and USSR amassed about 75,000 nuclear warheads whose combined power was 1 million times greater than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

16. Since 1940 the US spent $5.48 trillion on nuclear weapons and delivery systems.

17. In 1969 one US sub could destroy 160 Soviet cities simultaneously.

18. At the height of MAD, the US was capable of blowing up 10 planets like earth. Even with disarmament we can still blow up several earths.

19. The US presently spends $100 million per day to maintain these systems.

20. Before 2001 the US annual investment in defense was more than 20% of its fiscal budget, over 1/2 trillion dollars, and over half of the national debt ($2.9 out of $5.6 trillion). Since 2001 these figures have exploded.

21. We are now stronger militarily than the next 25 nations combined.

Is this a sobering picture? What the fission are we doing? And what about the church? Do we think this is all a really great idea? Is this indicative of a righteous trajectory for America?

Inner Megalomaniac

"Even Hitler didn't wake up going, 'let me do the most evil thing I can do today.' I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was 'good.'" ~ Will Smith ruminating

"Adolf Hitler was a vile, heinous vicious killer responsible for one of the greatest acts of evil committed on this planet." ~ Will Smith backpedaling

Hello.

First of all, has anyone ever heard of a black Nazi? It's an oxymoron.

Hitler believed in the ridiculous concept of Aryan (read "white") superiority. Couple that concept with copious amounts of amphetamines and you have the Jewish purge. Hitler was really a religious man with a concept. And a crusade. And everybody wants to be in on a crusade at least once. Does anything else that a person can do produce such a giddy high of self-superiority?

I think this is what Will Smith was saying. Hitler was a man on a mission, bent on fixing the world. He was a do-gooder. So how does doing good turn into a holocaust? Will Smith is presenting a paradox that apparently went over the heads of his many fans.

"Whoa. Will Smith is a Nazi. Imagine that."

Apparently, the one luxury celebrities don't have is the luxury of deep thought. Shame on you, Will. You are an intelligent black man. Don't betray your fans by thinking.

So is it wrong to try to change the world? What is the difference between Hitler and Al Gore? Some people would say nothing. But does anyone believe Al Gore is a monster bent on dominating the world, with the ends justifying the means, in order to save the world? When does saving the world ~ mimicking your favorite superhero ~ become megalomania?

Even more interesting, is there a megalomaniac within each of us that is waiting to break out if only it can find a cause worth dominating the world for? Is there any irony in the idea that we can save the world through destruction? Awareness of that irony may be the only thing that keeps our inner megalomaniacs in check.

Bravo, Will Smith. You are a celebrity with a brain. And you seem to be keeping your inner megalomaniac in check.

Religious Justice

These boys didn’t get a fair trial. They got picked for wearing black clothes and having long hair. I am fundamentally opposed to the death penalty, and as Lenny Bruce said, "In the halls of justice, all the justice is in the halls." Perhaps, a jury is composed of twelve men and women of average ignorance; and a judge is a lawyer who once knew a politician. In our system of justice, the best client for a lawyer is a scared millionaire. The worst thing in our criminal justice system is to be broke or different.
-Tom Waits


Watching the Larry King Interview of Damien Echols, now on death row from a mob justice conviction for murdering 3 boys in Arkansas over 15 years ago, I was thinking I could see how this kind of thing could happen, that these three guys could be convicted for "Satanic crimes" they did not commit. They were outsiders in a Bible Belt microcosm that was looking for convenient scapegoats.

Tragedies invoke traumas. Senseless murders can so traumatize the victim's loved ones that people who oppose the death penalty can suddenly become avid seekers of someone's execution, as a kind of panacea and vengeance for grief. Also, pull in local bias into the mix ~ the conviction that all kids in black clothes and long hair are Satanists ~ and you have the Salem witch trials deja vu. We should remember that Jesus Christ was executed as a Satanist.

And who was it that plotted Jesus' death? The strictest of religious Jews, the most pious sect among them. The Pharisees wielded political power and influence. They could incite a mob. They could conspire to have their nemesis, Jesus, eradicated. They could even pervert Roman justice to achieve their devious, though outwardly "righteous", ends.

It doesn't happen all the time, but it happens. And today, this famous case of the West Memphis 3 Murders, should be reopened and retried, largely due to new DNA evidence that ties none of the three alleged murderers to the scene. It is entirely possible that the three are innocent, with two serving life sentences and one awaiting lethal injection.

I am someone that people would categorize as "religious", because I have faith in Christ. But it makes me wonder why religion can turn people, even believers in Christ, into something other than what he so evidently was: a man committed to justice. Perhaps I too would become a rabid seeker of vengeance if I found a child close to me murdered: perhaps I would demand to be repaid. Perhaps my trauma would blind me to the fact that I had found innocent young men to pay for a crime they didn't commit in order to satisfy my emotional need for a closure that never comes. Perhaps my personal bias against some outsider would make me feel justified in having them put to death to sate my need for vengeance.

It is really the opposite of how faith should motivate us. Faith puts the painful reality in God's hands even if human justice fails miserably: and it frequently does. "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord." It is criminally selfish of us to seek scapegoats to relieve us of our personal pain. All we do is compound the misery by pulling someone else into the black hole of a heinous crime.

As followers of Christ we should value justice, mercy, and kindness, even when seriously wronged. What good does it do to bring the legal hammer down on the innocent? It accomplishes nothing. Yet the Puritans did it. They brought a religious bias into the courtroom and became the new inquisitors, torturing and killing people Christ came to save.

Christ himself was an outsider. And he paid dearly for it.

He told us to clothe the naked, visit the prisoner, feed the hungry: that in so doing we were showing compassion to him. He is saying then that he identified with the outsider. The outsider is now in. He died as an outsider for the outsider. Yet it has been our lot in history to hate the outsider, round him up, put him in prison and even kill him. It makes me think we don't have a clue who Christ really was.

Doing Greater Works Than Jesus

John 14:12-14 -Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater [works] than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ya shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do [it].

Mat 17:20 - And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

Mat 18:18 - Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven: and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

From a Tony Campolo piece on "Doing Greater Works":

I was in Haiti. I checked on our missionary work there. We run 75 small schools back in the hills of Haiti. I came to the little Holiday Inn where I always stay and shower and clean up before I board the plane to go home. I left the taxi and was walking to the entrance of the Holiday Inn when I was intercepted by three girls. I call them girls because the oldest could not have been more than 15. And the one in the middle said, "Mister, for $10 I’ll do anything you want me to do. I’ll do it all night long. Do you know what I mean?"
I did know what she meant. I turned to the next one and I said, "What about you, could I have you for $10?"
She said yes. I asked the same of the third girl. She tried to mask her contempt for me with a smile but it’s hard to look sexy when your 15 and hungry. I said, "I’m in room 210, you be up there in just 10 minutes. I have $30 and I’m going to pay for all 3 of you to be with me all night long."

I rushed up to the room, called down to the concierge desk and I said I want every Walt Disney video that you’ve got in stock. I called down to the restaurant and said, do you still make banana splits in this town, because if you do I want banana splits with extra ice cream, extra everything. I want them delicious, I want them huge, I want four of them!

The little girls came and the ice cream came and the videos came and we sat at the edge of the bed and we watched the videos and laughed until about one in the morning. That’s when the last of them fell asleep across the bed. And as I saw those little girls stretched out asleep on the bed, I thought to myself, nothing’s changed, nothing’s changed. Tomorrow they will be back on the streets selling their little bodies to dirty, filthy johns because there will always be dirty, filthy johns who for a few dollars will destroy little girls. Nothing’s changed. I didn’t know enough Creole to tell them about the salvation story, but the word of the spirit said this: but for one night, for one night you let them be little girls again.

I know what you’re going to say: "You’re not going to compare that with Jesus walking on water." No, I’m not, for very obvious reasons. If Jesus was to make a decision which is the greater work, walking on water or giving one night of childhood back to 3 little girls who had it robbed from them -- giving one night of joy to 3 little girls that armies had marched over -- which do you think Jesus would consider the greater work, walking on water or ministering to those 3 little girls.

The Rev. Dr. Tony Campolo is a Professor of Sociology and Director of the Urban Studies Program at Eastern College in St. Davids, Pennsylvania.

My comment:
Dr. Campolo represents just one way of looking at the issue of doing greater works. There is a tension in this idea. For instance, there is a teaching that in the final days of the Gentile Age the church will again produce the miracles of Jesus, exactly as he performed them, and even greater (based largely on the scriptures above quoted).

The word "greater" is a translation of the Greek word meizon, which basically means "higher quality." That is, Jesus is saying, "You will do better works than these."

In John 8: 39, Jesus says, "Do the works of Abraham." Abraham did no miracles. "Works" means "deeds." Do the deeds of Abraham. Abraham's deeds were deeds of faith, like leaving the safety of Ur to obey God.

Greater also means the "extended" work of the Spirit through the corporate Body of believers. We too participate in the work of the Father's business through the Spirit given to us. God works with us in our lives as we walk after the Spirit: sometimes miracles happen. They are interventions of all sorts.

We can safely say that God has extended the work of Jesus through the church, and it has been a miraculous journey. We have not yet seen very many believers replicating the actual miracles of Jesus, and certainly no one doing verifiably greater or more astonishing things.

What would happen if people did start doing those things again? Would it shake up the world? Perhaps.

But Dr. Campolo brings up a worthy thought. Would doing those things be greater than simple acts of love, which are themselves miraculous in a world so lacking in compassion and kindness? Those girls in Haiti needed an orphanage.

In James we read: "Pure religion...is caring for the widows and orphans...."

Jesus was just one man, but through his Spirit he became many, a greater company called the church, extending his influence into all the world. It is the destiny of the church to love the world, just as he does.

Tweaking the Eschaton

I'm just going to copy this straight out of Brian McLaren's new book Everything Must Change. This book may be the most challenging one this guy has written yet. Very thought provoking:

"The phrase 'the second coming of Christ' never actually appears in the Bible. Whether or not the doctrine to which the phrase refers deserves rethinking, a popular abuse of it certainly needs to be named and rejected. If we believe that Jesus came in peace the first time, but that wasn't his 'real' and decisive coming ~ it was just a kind of warm-up for the real thing ~ then we envision a second coming that will be characterized by violence, killing, domination and eternal torture. This vision reflects a deconversion, a retrun to trust in the power of Pilate, refusing to fight. This eschatological understanding of a violent second coming leads us to believe (as we've said before) that in the end, even God finds it impossible to fix the world apart from violence and coercion; no one should be surprised when those shaped by this theology behave accordingly.......

".......This is why I believe that many of our current eschatologies, intoxicated by dubious interpretations of John's Apocalypse, are not only ignorant and wrong, but dangerous and immoral. By way of ignorance, they are oblivious to the conventions of Jewish apocalyptic literature in particular, and literature of the oppressed in general. As a result they wrongly ~ one might even say ridiculously ~ interpret obviously metaphorical language as literal."
Everything Must Change, pgs. 144-145.

McLaren is probably the most influential writer in what is called the "emergent" church, a term he says he hates. It is as if he has been given the task to define the direction of the post-modern church, or really the church in the now post-modern era.

Anyone entering into the emergent conversation is in for a wild ride. This whole thing is a real shaking for the universal church which is used to certain conventions of thinking or what McLaren would call "framing narratives." A framing narrative is just a story we go by: a particular way of viewing the scriptures that defines our lives.

I've been talking, in some of my blogs, about one of my favorite (no, obsessive) subjects,eschatology (the study of "last things" or the eschaton). I was spiritually raised in this version of Jesus he calls "ignorant and wrong." The view he is undboubtedly coming from is over in the zone we might call universalist / preterist. To Evangelical ears, this sounds radical, and to some devilish. For many it is tantamount to heresy.

Still, I don't just like this guy, I love him. I don't know of another writer out there that upends my safe little world so much. So we'll be looking at this new book in later blogs, I'm sure.

When I read words like those above from McLaren, I feel schizophrenic, like I have two personalities. One side of me resonates with what he's saying and the other is crying, "No, you can't take the second coming away from me." I have not a sufficient interpretational grid to process that with.

The apocalyptic framing story McLaren is referring to is the picture inspired by Revelation of Jesus returning to earth with ten thousands of his saints to finish up the Middle East battle of Armageddon and reclaim the earth for the future kingdom of God. McLaren's framing story is the very different preterist version that says Jesus' return symbology refers to a past event and was tied in with the first Advent and the end of the age of Judaism.

What intrigues me here is that he is saying, basically, our eschatology could use some tweaking and that we may be using these things irresponsibly. How do we then process all the biblical references to parousia, resurrection, harpazo, and the larger paradigm shift that Jesus inaugurated? Maybe we need another Nicene council: a meeting of diverse Christian minds to rethink the eschaton.

In The Courtroom of Life

1 Corinthians 6
Lawsuits Among Believers
1If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints? 2Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? 3Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! 4Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church! 5 I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? 6 But instead, one brother goes to law against another—and this in front of unbelievers!

7The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? 8 Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers.

9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

~

I want to go beneath the surface of this a little bit. Is there more here than just advice for handling legal matters and one of the most seemingly damning verses in the New Testament? I mean, you could take verse nine and virtually exclude anybody and everybody from the kingdom of God. Are there any immoral people, idolaters, gays, greedy folks, drunks, slanderers, or swindlers in the church? No? Are you in a coma?

First of all, why are the court dockets full? Why is Judge Judy one of the highest-paid performers on TV? Why are there so many lawyers and so many laws? The answer is that offenses abound; and, even more than that, people who want to get even because of offenses abound.

What does it mean to "get even?" It means, "I want justice." I want a fair shake. Nobody takes advantage of me: nobody.

We often join up with a religion because we become concerned about spiritual issues. Then, when we join, we strive to be the best we can at that religion's tenets. When we do, we invest a lot in that effort; and, when we have a lot invested in something, we begin to enforce it. And woe be unto anyone who challenges our position. It can get really savage. Also, that savagery undermines the very reason we sought religion in the first place.

In Christ's teachings, though, we encounter something very opposite to this tendency. He teaches love, kindness, mercy, forgiveness, and hospitality. In short, He asks us to be very contrary to the tendencies of our own natures.

In the above passage, Paul is talking first about legalities and disputes, then he tells us that the wicked won't inherit the kingdom of God. It almost seems there is no real context here, no connection between the two ideas.

But a closer look would reveal there is a connection. The previous chapter is part of the context here, where Paul deals with immorality in the church and sets up what seems to be a practice that endures to the present day: excommunication. But in the big picture of how Paul deals with these problems, we begin to realize that he was also quick to forgive and accept people back who changed their ways.

A closer examination of Paul's teachings reveals that he was anti-legalistic and into promoting harmony in the church. He was, as a major leader, trying to head off legalistic bickering that we know from history became the denominational and schism-happy situation we see today.

The point, really, of verse nine, is that we are all by the law condemned. Thus, do we take that same law and bully one another and those without, the outsiders? This is an anti-legalistic passage. It isn't saying we don't need to obey the law. It is saying we don't need to take legal judgments and bludgeon everybody.

Actually, this practice of going to law with fellow believers is exactly what we do and have done for centuries. When are we going to quit?

Paul says, "Some of you used to be very wicked yourselves. When did you start becoming so judgmental? When did you start using the law you once broke so frivolously to now bring everyone into line?"

In other words, we are all condemned. But now we are out from under the law because he who fulfilled the law (Jesus) is with us. Our understanding is that he has saved us from our condemnation, and further, he is saving everything he has made. Through Christ he is bringing what he has created back to himself. Who are we to judge?

Paul also says we will sit in judgment, even of angels, so we should be able to judge disputes. The primary thing that ends disputes is mercy, and mercy opens us to understand what brought the offending party to their present situation. How great is the mercy of God through Christ toward us? It knows no bounds.

Mercy rejoices against judgment, and lawsuits are about judgment. However, it is more than legal disputes we are looking at here: it is all contention within the church and even extended to those without. This does not mean we don't seek to understand the truth through dialog. It does mean we are all on the same trajectory and therefore are not enemies over trifles or disputes over words, semantic wrangling.

The church has a long and complicated history of disputes, legal questions, and doctrinal oppositions. Sometimes these things have been so prominent that they actually sidetrack from the work of proclaiming Christ's salvation to the world. This historical dynamic means there is something fundamentally wrong with what we believe Christ has accomplished. We have limited the mercy of God and made it only available to a select few. But His mercy endures forever: it knows no bounds and is certainly not boxed in by our preferences and prejudices. It's time for the church to open her bowels of compassion both to those without and those within.

Iceland USA: Meditation

Psalm 147: 12

Jerusalem, praise the Lord.

Zion, praise your God.

13 He makes the bars

of your gates stronger.

He blesses the people

who live inside you.

14 He keeps your borders

safe and secure.

He satisfies you

with the finest wheat.

15 He sends his command

to the earth.

His word arrives there quickly.

16 He spreads the snow like wool.

He scatters the frost like ashes.

17 He throws down his hail

like small stones.

No one can stand his icy blast.

18 He gives his command,

and the ice melts.

He stirs up his winds,

and the waters flow.

19 He has made his word known to the people of Jacob.

He has made his laws and rules known to Israel.

20 He hasn't done that for any other nation.

They don't know his laws. Praise the Lord.

Photos courtesy of Leigh Ann Wilbur

A Sound In The Trees

2 Samuel 5:
23 So David asked the Lord for advice. The Lord answered, "Do not go straight up. Instead, circle around behind them. Attack them in front of the balsam trees. 24 Listen for the sound of marching in the tops of the trees. Then move quickly. The sound will mean that I have gone out in front of you. I will strike down the Philistine army."


I've been remiss about blogging. Actually, suffering from blogger-block and too much going on right now (not to mention ice storms).

I've been discussing the arts and Christianity with some e-mail buddies. Seems the church universal dropped the ball on media. And maybe that was just as well. If we were propagating the wrong message maybe it is best we didn't master the medium. Besides, we weren't interested in the medium as much as the message: and the message has been divisive. How can you divide your audience and expect to win them?

I'm seeing, I think, a glimmer of hope. What would happen if we got the message right? What if the world out there perked up when they heard about Jesus? What if He was no longer the enemy of all reason, the state, and the people? What if He wasn't so monstrous and scary any more? What if it suddenly dawned on people that He is the actual, unadulterated, unmitigated savior of the world? What if what we projected and broadcast to them actually was good news?

I've been blogging much of 2007 and just kind of hashing out my favorite subjects. In the interim I have changed. There has been a spiritual paradigm shift in my whole consciousness. It hasn't changed me on the outside. In fact, I got a little fatter this year staying home a lot and caring for my Dad who, at 93, is in the throes of dimentia.

In fact, dimentia taught me something. It taught me about the value of life. What we accomplish is almost meaningless in relation to this temporal sphere. Whatever my Dad was trying to do in life, whatever gains he tried to make, whatever successes he had, he can't remember them now. His brain is practically dead, even while he lives. And it tells me, when death comes, it all passes away. For him, it has all passed, and he is still alive. He is living testimony that not much of what we do matters.

But Jesus said it does matter. He said, "Lay treasures up in heaven." Well, how do we do that? By giving to Benny Hinn? Benny thinks that's a good idea. The fact is, our lives are on a trajectory and laying up treasures is part of that.

With the Advent of Christ, mankind is headed for the Kingdom. We who come into this blessed hope in this life are now helping to further that goal of God. But we haven't really realized it or been taught it. Instead, we've been trying to coerce people into Christ. That's different than what Paul meant when he said, "I caught you with guile" or "Knowing the seriousness of God we persuade men." That was King James. The NIV Reader's Version puts it this way:

1 Cor. 5: 11 We know what it means to have respect for the Lord. So we try to help other people to understand it.

How can we help people understand it if we don't really know what it is?

What if we did begin to understand it? What if it suddenly dawned on millions of Christians that we have been preaching a crippled gospel? That would have to come from God for such a time as this, when church credibility and relevance are at an ebb. Then our whole approach to our common faith would take on a radical new look. Suddenly, Jesus would not just be some imaginary monarch to the masses, He would be the hero of history, the fixer of everything.

Do I hear a sound in the balsam trees?

Forgiveness Song

This is a song I think I wrote in about 1976. The lyrics can be sung over the Bob Marley tune I Shot The Sheriff.


Forgive


//Forgive one another
And don't hold a grudge
Judge not your brother
That you be not judged.


With what measure that you mete
It will be measured to you again
Agree with your adversary quickly
While you are in the way with him.


//Forgive one another....


Why behold the mote that's in your brother's eye
And not the beam that's in your own
Try cleaning up your own back yard
Before you pick at someone else's home.


//Forgive one another....


People who live in glass houses
Should not be throwing stones
Let the man without sin among you
Be the first to cast a stone.


//Forgive one another
And don't hold a grudge
Judge not your brother
That you be not judged.