THIS IS GOOD NEWS!

News Alert
03:42 PM EST Friday, December 18, 2009

Climate deal reached in Copenhagen, official says

World leaders reach agreement that provides for a means to monitor and verify emission cuts by developing countries but has less ambitious climate targets than the U.S. and European governments had initially sought, according to an Obama administration official.

Hooray!

From My Heart To Yours

This will be the last of my lunch hour ruminations for 2009. For the first time in our thirty-nine years together, Mary and I are going to share the full two-week Christmas vacation. We’re looking forward to being with family and friends, and to getting better acquainted with our future home. We’ve purchased a small Christmas tree that we’ll transplant to Fort Collins, and we accidentally acquired a 4” LED semblance that we’ll use to decorate Prudence. As I’ve explained in years past, I am among the thousands who learned the true meaning of Christmas from Dad’s candlelight services. The joy and hope of this season is to be found in dispelling the darkness by lighting that one little candle and letting its light spread. Hope is what I’d like to both give and receive this Christmas, although I’m not wildly optimistic about that happening. The dark evil which pervades our planet is, like President Obama stated in his Nobel address, very real. Greed is rampant and apparently triumphant as special interests seemingly delight in destroying our economy, our health care, and anything else that can be turned for a profit. But I am forced to remember that things looked equally dark to those oppressed by the Roman Empire two-thousand years ago, and that’s when the light of hope first presented itself in such a way that even the least among them was inspired. So, that’s my New Year’s resolution: to not lose the hope in my own life so that I may share it with others. I think that’s what Jesus would do.

The Spirit of Christmas

My heart was unexpectedly warmed yesterday as a coworker offered to assess some of my older cases for me. We had just finished a training session where the discussion turned to backlog. She had none. I had plenty. And with a sincerity and generosity that I have quite frankly not experienced during my eleven years of employment here, Kamara took seven assessments from my cubicle and completed them. In reflecting upon this occurrence I have realized that this is what the Spirit of Christ is all about. It’s the doing unto others as you would have them do unto you made manifest, made real in a world that suffers when such is not the prevailing practice. I have no idea what Kamara’s religion might be, and it really doesn’t matter. Whatever faith generates such generosity of spirit is what counts. For two millennia now, humankind has been celebrating the birth of love into our world. Oh, I know, the love was there before and after, but something about the child that grew into Christhood made it more real, more genuine, more authentic. That’s what the celebration is meant to be about, and if we all try a little harder to show our love for others, we’ll be heartened by the hope that comes from that love being returned.

Let There Be War on Earth

First, let me invite you to read Alex Altman’s article, Brief History: The War on Christmas.

I found it interesting and I hope you did too. It started me to thinking about other institutions that have declared war on Christmas, some of them quite unlikely. I’ve already referred to Wal-Mart’s “Christmas costs less at Wal-Mart” campaign, which at first glance seems to be in tune with zealous Christians intent upon wiping out political correctness with their version of the reason for the season. I still don’t believe anyone caught the fair translation, “Christmas is worth less at Wal-Mart”. Capitalism and consumerism have combined in the perfect assault upon the holy day that all but obscures its true meaning. Less obvious, however, is Christianity itself. I was inspired by United Methodism’s theological doctrine of not expecting anyone to believe the unbelievable. Alas, like most mainline Protestant churches, United Methodists no longer seek a rational faith but instead promote the popular belief in magic and supernatural miracles. Early on, the Church began to revise the tradition until it conformed to popular expectations. That December 25 is selected as the day of observance directly traces back to the Roman festival of Saturnalia, just one example of the emerging religion’s embrace of contemporary culture. Any time I can embrace a point of view which opposes Bill O’Reilly’s makes me feel good, and I would consider it an honor if he would name me just one more enemy of Christmas!

Can You Feel It?

There’s a mounting excitement that’s palpable as we draw nearer to Christmas. The reasons are as varied as the excited. For some it is a time for family reunions. For others it is a time to give gifts, and likewise for gifts to be received. I can remember that for a child it is a season of magic replete with lights, songs, decorations, and amidst all that a story of a mother and father who deeply loved their newborn. It is a season of miracles and the miraculous, of joy, of hope, and of wonder. Those are all pretty good reasons to get excited. At the root of all this is the reality of hope that grips so many with a belief that things can get better than they are now, that love really is a way for us to get along with one another, and the faith that something greater than ourselves is behind all that we experience. This is not the kind of answer you would expect from a child asked what is so exciting about Christmas, but we need to look at the children’s answers because they will actually tell us what the excitement is all about. Yes, there’s excitement about getting things. But many children, especially in America, get things all the time. I suspect that those listening will hear (in kids’ terms, for sure) that the magic, the mystery, the songs, the lights, and the stories all point to an excitement grounded in the hope that God is with us and loves us.

Christmas Is About Hope

It may well be coincidence that President Barack Obama accepted his Nobel Peace Prize on the 61st anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but that in no way diminishes the significance of each occasion. I am unashamedly proud of this man of hope, and I here share with you what I considered to be the highlights of his acceptance speech:


We are not mere prisoners of fate. Our actions matter and can bend history in the direction of justice…As someone who stands here as a direct consequence of Dr. King’s life’s work, I am living testimony to the moral force of non-violence. I know there is nothing weak, nothing passive, nothing naïve in the creed and lives of Gandhi and King…For make no mistake: evil does exist in the world…To say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism, it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason…war itself is never glorious, and we must never trumpet it as such…we must direct our effort to the task that President Kennedy called for long ago. “Let us focus”, he said, “on a more practical, more attainable peace, based not on a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution in human institutions…Furthermore, American cannot insist that others follow the rules of the road if we refuse to follow them ourselves…That is why all responsible nations must embrace the role that militaries with a clear mandate can play to keep the peace…I also know this: the belief that peace is desirable is rarely enough to achieve it. Peace requires responsibility. Peace entails sacrifice…we honor [our troops] not as makers of war, but as wagers of peace…Where force is necessary, we have a moral and strategic interest in binding ourselves to certain rules of conduct…We lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals that we fight to defend. And we honor those ideals by upholding them not just when it is easy, but when it is hard…First, in dealing with those nations that break rules and laws, I believe that we must develop alternatives to violence that are tough enough to change behavior…such pressure exists only when the world stand together as one…Only a just peace based upon the inherent rights and dignity of every individual can truly be lasting…if human rights are not protected, peace is a hollow promise…No matter how callously defined, neither America’s interest nor the world’s are served by the denial of human aspirations…it is the responsibility of all free people and free nations to make clear to these movements that hope and history are on their side…But I also know that sanctions without outreach and condemnation without discussion can carry forward a crippling status quo. No repressive regime can move down a new path unless it has the choice of an open door…For true peace is not just freedom from fear, but freedom from want…The absence of hope can rot a society from within…Agreements among nations. Strong institutions. Support for human rights. Investments in development. All of these are vital ingredients in bringing about the evolution that President Kennedy spoke about. And yet, I do not believe that we will have the will, or the staying power, to complete this work without something more, and that is the continued expansion of our moral imagination; an insistence that there is something irreducible that we all share…Most dangerously, we see it in the way that religion is used to justify the murder of innocents by those who have distorted and defiled the great religion of Islam…Holy War can never be a just was. For if you truly believe that you are carrying out divine will, then there is no need for restraint, no need to spare the pregnant mother, or the medic, or even a person of one’s own faith. Such a warped view of religion is not just incompatible with the concept of peace, but the purpose of faith, for the one rule that lies at the heart of every major religion is that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us…Adhering to this law of love has always been the core struggle of human nature. We are fallible. We make mistakes, and fall victim to the temptations of pride, and power, and sometimes evil. Even those of us with the best intentions will at times fail to right the wrongs before us…But we do not have to think that human nature is perfect for us to still believe that the human condition can be perfected. We do not have to live in an idealized world to still reach for those ideals that will make it a better place. The non-violence practiced by men like Gandhi and King may not have been practical or possible in every circumstance, but the love that they preached, their faith in human progress, must always be the North Star that guides us on our journey…For is we lost that faith, if we dismiss it as silly or naïve; if we divorce it from the decisions that we make on issues of war and peace, then we lose what is best about humanity. We lost our sense of possibility. We lose our moral compass…Like generations have before us, we must reject that future. As Dr. King said at this occasion so many years ago, “I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the ‘isness’ of man’s present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal ‘oughtness’ that forever confronts him”…So let us reach for the world that ought to be, that spark of the divine that still stirs within each of our souls…We can acknowledge that oppression will always be with us, and still strive for justice. We can admit the intractability of deprivation, and still strive for dignity. We can understand that there will be war, and still strive for peace. We can do that, for that is the story of human progress; that is the hope of all the world; and at his moment of challenge, that must be our work here on Earth.

Upon Obama’s conclusion, one of the pundits commented that he didn’t know if the world was ready for Obama the President, much less Obama the theologian. Amen!

One Solitary Life

Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.

He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself...

While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.

I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.

This essay was adapted from a sermon by Dr James Allan Francis in “The Real Jesus and Other Sermons” © 1926 by the Judson Press of Philadelphia (pp 123-124 titled “Arise Sir Knight!”). If you are interested, you can read the original version .

Now this gets to the heart of what Christmas is really all about: God with us!

I'm Dreaming of a Real Christmas

Christmas came early last year as hope was made manifest on November 4. In the darkness of what American politics has become shone a light emitted by the least likely person to be elected President. That’s what Christmas is really about.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. (John 1:1-5, NRSV)

Those who have had the opportunity to study the New Testament are probably familiar with the fact that the Gospel According to John almost didn’t make the canonical cut because of its mystically esoteric theologizing. Lacking the Bethlehem narratives of Matthew and Luke, John’s “Christmas” story is not about an event but of a dynamic let loose in the world.

I think it’s high time that we let go of the pageants and reenactments so long associated with Christmas. It has been observed that text without context becomes pretext, and while there is something especially beautiful about the Nativity, that’s not what the gospel is really all about. The Gospel of Mark is considered by most scholars to have been the first of the New Testament accounts written, and the reader will quickly notice that there is no Nativity and no Resurrection (at least in the original).

Perhaps this Christmas can be about the rebirth of hope into our world.

Drawing the Line at Christmas

“Christmas costs less at WalMart.” This slogan obviously deserves the antichrist award for 2009. It is not a mistranslation to read, “At WalMart Christmas is worth less;” how true, how true. This campaign epitomizes the commercialization of Christ’s birth, and it’s the straw that broke this camel’s back. How dare they? It’s a black and white admission that Christmas, at least in America, is all about the almighty buck. It has little or nothing to do anymore with the advent of the reign of the Prince of Peace. There is no little discussion right now about how Christmas can make or break our economy. From Black Friday to Cyber Monday, there isn’t even a pretense anymore about the reason for the season. It’s to make money. It’s to show profits. And if it capitalizes on a supposed holy day, so be it. I’m not going to play their game this year. Oh, I’ll still be giving gifts because I’ve experienced the genuine joy of giving, but I’ll not be participating in anything that smacks of capitalism run amok. And as far as New Year’s resolve is concerned, let this serve as fair warning to Wall Street, the Religious Right, and every other idiot that has coopted Christianity in the name of selfish greed that I’m not going to stand for it any more. My mission is to call out the hypocrites and heathens wherever they lurk, whether they be in the “Church”, the Congress, or the local WalMart. In a world filled with darkness, now is the time for the light of hope to shine in such a way that it chases the cockroaches back into oblivion.

The Golden Rule

I am simply amazed by the thought of how much everything would change (for the better) if everyone started treating everyone else the way they would like to be treated. The Toyota customer service representative who took our first call of distress on Thanksgiving Day from the wilds of northern Arizona might not have said there was nothing she could do for us if she had put herself in a similar situation. The Toyota service technician who erroneously gave our car a clean bill of health and sent us on our way to another breakdown might not have done that if he had thought about how he (or she; I don’t have a clue) would have wanted to be treated were he in a similar situation. The recent class in mediation training that I attended briefly touched on the ethics of customer service (I despise our regard for the public as “customers”) without even mentioning the ethic of mutual reciprocity—treat others as you want to be treated. I’m willing to speculate that if President Obama had entertained the Golden Rule while making his decision on Afghanistan, the outcome would have been quite different. If we have billions to spend overseas, then why wouldn’t it be for food, shelter and medicine? Our species has had only partial glimpses of the kind of world it could be if we loved one another rather than attacking each other. The classic illustration of this was the goodwill displayed toward our country after September 11, 2001 being squandered by our violent and warlike response. “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. Someday I hope you’ll join us, and the world will live as one.” Thank you, John.

P.S. My heartfelt thanks to Rachel for Incite's new format that allows you to agree or disagree with my thoughts in simple anonymity. Your additional comments are still welcome as always.

A Cautionary Tale

Rebecca put a positive spin on our Prius fiasco. Likening us to pioneers venturing into the frontier of a new technology, she said we were apt to have experiences not known to more staid conservatives. I like her outlook. Had we known when we bought our first Prius that it might just shut down in the middle of nowhere and that an act of Congress would be required to repair it, we might have hesitated. The truth, however, is that we already had a timing belt break on our Volvo outside Cozad, Nebraska and that was just as debilitating. Dad has driven hundreds of thousands of miles in his three Prii (forgive me, please, but I’m having no luck finding the correct spelling for the plural of Prius) without incident, and I’m being told that the breakdown of ours is the exception rather than the rule. A little before noon today I received an e-mail from Flagstaff Toyota informing me that the problem has been diagnosed (“inverter water pump seized up and drained the battery”; who would have guessed?) and that Prudence will be ready for us to pick up on Friday. Déjà vu? So, if you’re wary of life in the technological fast lane, you may want to buy a Ford that is just as likely to break down but won’t seem so exotic to the mechanic. I’m still not happy that it required hours of phone calls to get Toyota’s attention (oh, yes! I did get their attention) to have the matter resolved, but that can be tomorrow’s subject—unless I’m told later today that my bubble of hope has once again been burst.

Toyota: Too Big To Care

I’ve been such an enthusiastic fan of the Prius that it’s embarrassing to discover that Toyota’s customer service is no better than any other auto manufacturer’s. My opinion of the social climate in the United States leads me to believe that Toyota would have been better off staying in Japan. Our first Prius, a 2003 manufactured in Japan, came with all kinds of corporate attention intended to, I suppose, allay any wariness about the new technology. After nearly two years of driving that car, Toyota offered us 90% of its original price in trade on the 2005 as incentive to make the move. Both cars have operated flawlessly until Thanksgiving Day when the unthinkable happened: Prudence shut down. Now we are getting the real story about service after the sale. The only thing that Findlay Toyota Flagstaff has succeeded at is relieving us of $60 to charge the battery which is now reportedly unchargeable (they were very adept at that). Centennial Toyota, who sold us both cars (and the extended warranty) is really sorry about our misfortune, but could only offer me the telephone number to Toyota Customer Service that I hung up on yesterday after having spent close to an hour on hold. I spent an equally long time on hold today but persevered, at which time Brandy actually assigned me a case number and case manager who is supposed to call me in the next twenty-four hours. Bottom line: your problem is not our problem. I’ll continue to do my best to impress upon Toyota that my problem is their problem, and you, dear reader, may be thankful that you’re not one of their customer service reps.