Monday, April 6, 2009
Back in the U.S.A.
Well, I made it back in one piece! Unfortunately, I didn't have web access for the latter part of my trip. However, I will be posting some more thoughts in the near future.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Art in Arabia
I was walking through the Emirates Palace when I came a across a doorway that, much to my surprise, had an extensive collection of contemporary art. (These little surprises are what makes the Palace interesting. Another out of the way cove had a significant collection of original Henri Cartier-Bresson prints, but that is another story.) One of the pieces at this exhibit was a video-installation of a performance artist. It was a woman wearing a black body suit that covered her completely, including her face (sort of like Spider Man) and had green numbers on it like a digital ticker tape. She was doing mundane tasks like going to the ATM, selecting produce etc. The kind of art that you forget about quickly.
However, the only other inhabitants of this gallery was a group of young women (maybe 12 to 15 years old) fully dressed in the abayas and veils who were apparently on a school field trip. They came to the screen, 2 or 3 at a time and did some serious giggling. This was the kind of giggling that you would expect from young Americans seeing Michaelangelo's David or maybe a Charles Prince piece. Every now and then, 1 of the girls would leave the group and bring someone else back, who would instantly start giggling with the others. As each scene changed, for example, when the ticker-tape Spiderwoman got on an escalator, the teetering would get all the stronger.
I am tempted to put all sorts of cultural and feminist hermeneutics into this paragraph, but instead I'll just say that it was a neat image.
However, the only other inhabitants of this gallery was a group of young women (maybe 12 to 15 years old) fully dressed in the abayas and veils who were apparently on a school field trip. They came to the screen, 2 or 3 at a time and did some serious giggling. This was the kind of giggling that you would expect from young Americans seeing Michaelangelo's David or maybe a Charles Prince piece. Every now and then, 1 of the girls would leave the group and bring someone else back, who would instantly start giggling with the others. As each scene changed, for example, when the ticker-tape Spiderwoman got on an escalator, the teetering would get all the stronger.
I am tempted to put all sorts of cultural and feminist hermeneutics into this paragraph, but instead I'll just say that it was a neat image.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Matters of Church and State
We heard a talk from former Secretary of State James Baker on his ten rules for “Pragmatic Idealism” in diplomacy. For the most part, it seems like solid advice, though he would have to admit that he had mixed results as Secretary of State.
It has been said that if you want to understand the challenges of world politics, attend a church choir rehearsal. So, as he spoke, I started thinking about what it would look like if the leadership of our church applied the lessons that he learned navigating our country through 2 wars and the end of the Cold War. Here are the maxims and some of my thoughts on how these maxims can (and can't) be applied to those of us trying to “be church” at Franklin Grove UMC:
1)The United States must be comfortable with using its power.
The gist was that “isolationism and disengagement are simply not options”. If the US does not exercise power, others will.
This may be one of the most significant cultural shifts that we need to make in our congregation. The fact is, we are the church in town with the greatest amount of resources. With that comes a great amount of responsibility. We are accountable to God for a good use of our “talents”.
There is a significant amount of bemoaning about the the shifts in values within Franklin Grove and indeed the country. However, no amount of complaining can cover the fact that somewhere along the line, the church has lost a good deal of its relevancy in the community. The clear way to measure this rather intangible concept is to ask, “How much would Franklin Grove miss us if we were to disappear tomorrow?”
As a church, “power” is not an end in the traditional sense of the word. However, if it is understood as being good stewards of the blessings God has given us or better yet, telling our powerful story in such a way that it is compelling enough to change lives, then this maxim is quite useful for putting us on track.
Most importantly, to quote Secretary Baker, “isolationism and disengagement are simply not options”. The tendency is for churches to become insular. We start to create programs that cater to ourselves. Our worship style reflects what makes us comfortable and disregards what may attract those who are not already here. Gradually, everyone around us looks, acts and thinks in a way similar to the way that we look, act, and think. The obvious antidote to isolationism and disengagement is simply to make a serious effort to reach outside our walls in every way that we can. We need to look at the needs of our community before we look at our own needs. We need to creatively think of ways to share our stories. We need to recognize that people will not simply wander into our doors uninvited. We need to engage people in those areas of life that really matter.
Every leadership meeting within our church must begin with exploring this maxim if we are truly going to live out the call to “exercise our power” or to “go out into the world making disciples in all nations and baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit”.
2.We must recognize that even US power is limited.
Secretary Baker expanded this notion by saying that we cannot police the world and solve every problem. This lesson of vulnerability became all too apparent with the current war in Iraq and the economic challenges that we face.
There are several ways that this maxim is important in our context. I fear that we overestimate the power that one or two hours on Sunday can have. At each Sunday School class, we learn the tenants of our faith and the application of our Christian values. However, most of us spend much more than one hour in front of the television with its competing lessons of destructive ways of looking at the world and a systematic undermining of the values that we hold. Whereas our faith tells us that God is sovereign, the nightly news is intentionally crafted to promote fear in order to get better ratings. Whereas in Scripture we learn that we are of intrinsic, sacred worth, the 6 hours a week that we spend on average watching advertisements tells us that our worth is dependent on how we look and what we eat, wear or drive. Each single hour that we spend in adoration of God and renewed in Christ's rest is counterbalanced by 167 hours of the daily grind. In short, we each need to recognize that there is more to the Christian life than Sunday mornings.
3.Be prepared to act unilaterally when the situation requires it
4.Appreciate the importance of allies
Secretary Baker put these two maxims together, insisting that they are not contradictory. It is almost always preferable to act in concert with others. But when our vital interests are at stake we must be prepared, if necessary, to go it alone—although we should never undertake such action lightly. He noted that in the 20th century, wars that were won were done so by coalitions. However, we need to keep the option of unilateral action open.
Looking back up to the 2nd maxim, it is clear that the church's mission, “Building Christ-centered community based on Biblical principles to create and nurture disciples that serve all the world” cannot be done on our own. We need to be more intentional about reaching out to the other pillars in our community and seek out common missions. How can we better work with the schools, the Scouts, the civic organizations, the nursing home and retirement center, the village government, the other churches, etc.? On the other hand, we have a distinct mission that cannot be fulfilled by these other institutions. We need to be clear about that part of our self-identity and have our primary mission of “creating and nurturing disciples” always at the forefront.
5.We need to use all the means at our disposal to achieve our objectives. One size does not fit all when it comes to foreign policy.
Obviously, our church does not have its disposal “private démarches to military intervention.” However, we do have an awful lot of under-utilized resources. The participants of our recent “Born Again In Every Place” study came up with a substantial list which I won't repeat here. But chief amongst them are a great building, a legacy in the community, and diverse group of talented and dedicated members. We need to work on utilizing these resources to their fullest potential.
6.When a particular course of action is not producing results, we should be prepared to change direction if necessary.
With this maxim, Secretary Baker actually quoted a well known theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr: “Great nations are too strong to be destroyed by their foes. But they can easily be overcome by their own pride.” Though consistency is an important element of foreign policy, when events change, we must be prepared to change with them. “The rise of Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union, for instance, marked a dramatic shift in the world view of the Soviet leadership. It was therefore only right that Washington reach out to Moscow in ways unimaginable just a few short years before. We rightly changed course. And we are doing just that now in our Iraq policy.”
This is an area that churches, including our own, struggle with greatly. We sometimes operate as if we are preparing ministry for the 1950's. I have painfully seen change and adaption perceived as invalidation. The appearance of change becomes interpreted as unappreciation of the service that had come before. We can “easily be overcome by [our] own pride.” It is important that we help people see that doing something in a better way is not necessarily the same as saying that it was done wrong before, but that there might be a way of doing something that is more adaptive to the times. For example, work schedules (especially for women) have changed dramatically over the past couple of decades. Programming should be adjusted accordingly. The technology that people use to communicate with one another has adapted over the years. Has the church adapted with it? The list is endless. We need to be intentional about adapting our ministries to the changes within our communities as well as being open to doing things in a way that is different than what we are used to.
7.We need to recognize and accept that the United States will sometimes have to deal with authoritarian regimes.
Secretary Baker noted that, “To be blunt, sometimes we have no choice but to work with governments that fall short when it comes to democratic practices and protection of human rights.” He gave as examples our alliance with Stalin’s Soviet Union, authoritarian regimes in Latin America, Asia and elsewhere, and repressive regimes in The Middle East and Central Asia, saying that we sometimes need to put our principles aside.
On this point, I have to diverge with the Secretary. Although in foreign policy one may need to be flexible on principles, the church cannot. The church is our principles. There are no ends that can justify the means. Jesus showed us quite clearly that the Kingdom of God was not to be achieved by politics or compromise, but by each child of God embodying love. Religion is regularly corrupted. One philosopher opined that “One can be bad on their own, but to be truly horrid takes religion.” In nearly every instance of religion turning evil, it is because the founding principles were set aside “for a greater end.” This is poison and we must avoid it.
8.We must be prepared to talk with our enemies.
Secretary Baker stressed that talking is not appeasement. Instead, he recognized that the only way two countries have a hope of coming to some common ground is to maintain a dialog. It is quite possible that the Cold War would not have ended with a whimper if the US did not maintain an embassy in Moscow throughout it.
In order to be church, we need to stay at the table through our disagreements. When parties withdraw, we cannot do the work of loving and forgiving that we are called to do. It is as simple (and as hard) as that.
9.We should be mindful that values are important—but that they aren’t the only thing that should guide our policy.
He went on to say, “Sadly, we cannot formulate or implement American foreign policy according to the principles of Mother Teresa.”
Again, referring back to my response in number 8, our church can and must “formulate and implement policy according to the principles of Mother Teresa” (inasmuch as they are the principles of Jesus Christ.)
10. Domestic support is vital to any successful foreign policy.
This point should be obvious both in politics and in the life of the church. If people are not backing up the mission, the mission will fail. This does not mean that there needs to be unanimous support for everything or that every policy must be adapted to appease critics. But it is clearly necessary for the congregation to have a general feeling that the church's leaders are moving forward prayerfully, carefully, intentionally, faithfully, meaningfully, and with the best interests of the church in mind. Churches in particular are very fragile. One or two people can cause extreme chaos and havoc and can even bring down the whole organization in the blink of an eye. So, care and patience must be applied in teaching the congregation the reasons behind decisions and to shepherd them past the challenges that come, specifically around the stresses of living out maxim 7.
All together, Secretary Baker calls the use of these 10 maxims, “pragmatic idealism.” He describes it like this, “While firmly grounded in values, it appreciates the complexity of the real world—a world of hard choices and painful trade-offs. This is the real world in which we must live, decide and act.” He quotes Ronald Reagan as the embodiment of this pragmatic idealism when he reportedly said, “Jim, I’d rather get 80 percent of what I want than to go over the cliff with my flag flying.”
In the end, I have mixed feelings about James Bakers' successes and failures as Secretary of State. However, I feel that the maxims that he laid out can be a useful guide for the leaders of Franklin Grove UMC.
It has been said that if you want to understand the challenges of world politics, attend a church choir rehearsal. So, as he spoke, I started thinking about what it would look like if the leadership of our church applied the lessons that he learned navigating our country through 2 wars and the end of the Cold War. Here are the maxims and some of my thoughts on how these maxims can (and can't) be applied to those of us trying to “be church” at Franklin Grove UMC:
1)The United States must be comfortable with using its power.
The gist was that “isolationism and disengagement are simply not options”. If the US does not exercise power, others will.
This may be one of the most significant cultural shifts that we need to make in our congregation. The fact is, we are the church in town with the greatest amount of resources. With that comes a great amount of responsibility. We are accountable to God for a good use of our “talents”.
There is a significant amount of bemoaning about the the shifts in values within Franklin Grove and indeed the country. However, no amount of complaining can cover the fact that somewhere along the line, the church has lost a good deal of its relevancy in the community. The clear way to measure this rather intangible concept is to ask, “How much would Franklin Grove miss us if we were to disappear tomorrow?”
As a church, “power” is not an end in the traditional sense of the word. However, if it is understood as being good stewards of the blessings God has given us or better yet, telling our powerful story in such a way that it is compelling enough to change lives, then this maxim is quite useful for putting us on track.
Most importantly, to quote Secretary Baker, “isolationism and disengagement are simply not options”. The tendency is for churches to become insular. We start to create programs that cater to ourselves. Our worship style reflects what makes us comfortable and disregards what may attract those who are not already here. Gradually, everyone around us looks, acts and thinks in a way similar to the way that we look, act, and think. The obvious antidote to isolationism and disengagement is simply to make a serious effort to reach outside our walls in every way that we can. We need to look at the needs of our community before we look at our own needs. We need to creatively think of ways to share our stories. We need to recognize that people will not simply wander into our doors uninvited. We need to engage people in those areas of life that really matter.
Every leadership meeting within our church must begin with exploring this maxim if we are truly going to live out the call to “exercise our power” or to “go out into the world making disciples in all nations and baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit”.
2.We must recognize that even US power is limited.
Secretary Baker expanded this notion by saying that we cannot police the world and solve every problem. This lesson of vulnerability became all too apparent with the current war in Iraq and the economic challenges that we face.
There are several ways that this maxim is important in our context. I fear that we overestimate the power that one or two hours on Sunday can have. At each Sunday School class, we learn the tenants of our faith and the application of our Christian values. However, most of us spend much more than one hour in front of the television with its competing lessons of destructive ways of looking at the world and a systematic undermining of the values that we hold. Whereas our faith tells us that God is sovereign, the nightly news is intentionally crafted to promote fear in order to get better ratings. Whereas in Scripture we learn that we are of intrinsic, sacred worth, the 6 hours a week that we spend on average watching advertisements tells us that our worth is dependent on how we look and what we eat, wear or drive. Each single hour that we spend in adoration of God and renewed in Christ's rest is counterbalanced by 167 hours of the daily grind. In short, we each need to recognize that there is more to the Christian life than Sunday mornings.
3.Be prepared to act unilaterally when the situation requires it
4.Appreciate the importance of allies
Secretary Baker put these two maxims together, insisting that they are not contradictory. It is almost always preferable to act in concert with others. But when our vital interests are at stake we must be prepared, if necessary, to go it alone—although we should never undertake such action lightly. He noted that in the 20th century, wars that were won were done so by coalitions. However, we need to keep the option of unilateral action open.
Looking back up to the 2nd maxim, it is clear that the church's mission, “Building Christ-centered community based on Biblical principles to create and nurture disciples that serve all the world” cannot be done on our own. We need to be more intentional about reaching out to the other pillars in our community and seek out common missions. How can we better work with the schools, the Scouts, the civic organizations, the nursing home and retirement center, the village government, the other churches, etc.? On the other hand, we have a distinct mission that cannot be fulfilled by these other institutions. We need to be clear about that part of our self-identity and have our primary mission of “creating and nurturing disciples” always at the forefront.
5.We need to use all the means at our disposal to achieve our objectives. One size does not fit all when it comes to foreign policy.
Obviously, our church does not have its disposal “private démarches to military intervention.” However, we do have an awful lot of under-utilized resources. The participants of our recent “Born Again In Every Place” study came up with a substantial list which I won't repeat here. But chief amongst them are a great building, a legacy in the community, and diverse group of talented and dedicated members. We need to work on utilizing these resources to their fullest potential.
6.When a particular course of action is not producing results, we should be prepared to change direction if necessary.
With this maxim, Secretary Baker actually quoted a well known theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr: “Great nations are too strong to be destroyed by their foes. But they can easily be overcome by their own pride.” Though consistency is an important element of foreign policy, when events change, we must be prepared to change with them. “The rise of Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union, for instance, marked a dramatic shift in the world view of the Soviet leadership. It was therefore only right that Washington reach out to Moscow in ways unimaginable just a few short years before. We rightly changed course. And we are doing just that now in our Iraq policy.”
This is an area that churches, including our own, struggle with greatly. We sometimes operate as if we are preparing ministry for the 1950's. I have painfully seen change and adaption perceived as invalidation. The appearance of change becomes interpreted as unappreciation of the service that had come before. We can “easily be overcome by [our] own pride.” It is important that we help people see that doing something in a better way is not necessarily the same as saying that it was done wrong before, but that there might be a way of doing something that is more adaptive to the times. For example, work schedules (especially for women) have changed dramatically over the past couple of decades. Programming should be adjusted accordingly. The technology that people use to communicate with one another has adapted over the years. Has the church adapted with it? The list is endless. We need to be intentional about adapting our ministries to the changes within our communities as well as being open to doing things in a way that is different than what we are used to.
7.We need to recognize and accept that the United States will sometimes have to deal with authoritarian regimes.
Secretary Baker noted that, “To be blunt, sometimes we have no choice but to work with governments that fall short when it comes to democratic practices and protection of human rights.” He gave as examples our alliance with Stalin’s Soviet Union, authoritarian regimes in Latin America, Asia and elsewhere, and repressive regimes in The Middle East and Central Asia, saying that we sometimes need to put our principles aside.
On this point, I have to diverge with the Secretary. Although in foreign policy one may need to be flexible on principles, the church cannot. The church is our principles. There are no ends that can justify the means. Jesus showed us quite clearly that the Kingdom of God was not to be achieved by politics or compromise, but by each child of God embodying love. Religion is regularly corrupted. One philosopher opined that “One can be bad on their own, but to be truly horrid takes religion.” In nearly every instance of religion turning evil, it is because the founding principles were set aside “for a greater end.” This is poison and we must avoid it.
8.We must be prepared to talk with our enemies.
Secretary Baker stressed that talking is not appeasement. Instead, he recognized that the only way two countries have a hope of coming to some common ground is to maintain a dialog. It is quite possible that the Cold War would not have ended with a whimper if the US did not maintain an embassy in Moscow throughout it.
In order to be church, we need to stay at the table through our disagreements. When parties withdraw, we cannot do the work of loving and forgiving that we are called to do. It is as simple (and as hard) as that.
9.We should be mindful that values are important—but that they aren’t the only thing that should guide our policy.
He went on to say, “Sadly, we cannot formulate or implement American foreign policy according to the principles of Mother Teresa.”
Again, referring back to my response in number 8, our church can and must “formulate and implement policy according to the principles of Mother Teresa” (inasmuch as they are the principles of Jesus Christ.)
10. Domestic support is vital to any successful foreign policy.
This point should be obvious both in politics and in the life of the church. If people are not backing up the mission, the mission will fail. This does not mean that there needs to be unanimous support for everything or that every policy must be adapted to appease critics. But it is clearly necessary for the congregation to have a general feeling that the church's leaders are moving forward prayerfully, carefully, intentionally, faithfully, meaningfully, and with the best interests of the church in mind. Churches in particular are very fragile. One or two people can cause extreme chaos and havoc and can even bring down the whole organization in the blink of an eye. So, care and patience must be applied in teaching the congregation the reasons behind decisions and to shepherd them past the challenges that come, specifically around the stresses of living out maxim 7.
All together, Secretary Baker calls the use of these 10 maxims, “pragmatic idealism.” He describes it like this, “While firmly grounded in values, it appreciates the complexity of the real world—a world of hard choices and painful trade-offs. This is the real world in which we must live, decide and act.” He quotes Ronald Reagan as the embodiment of this pragmatic idealism when he reportedly said, “Jim, I’d rather get 80 percent of what I want than to go over the cliff with my flag flying.”
In the end, I have mixed feelings about James Bakers' successes and failures as Secretary of State. However, I feel that the maxims that he laid out can be a useful guide for the leaders of Franklin Grove UMC.
Monday, March 23, 2009
I had some amazing dialogues today ...
but I am way too exhausted to share them this evening. Hopefully, I can get caught up on my posts tomorrow!
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Something to think about at the pump
We all have a sense that someone is making money on oil, but until I went through Dubai, just how much had escaped me. In the late 1960s, the population of the fishing village known as Dubai was under 2,000. It is now 1.8 million. Some of the skyscrapers here are covered in 24 caret gold. There are 40 million palm trees in a country that sees 5 days of rain each year. 20% of the world's construction cranes (10,000) are here.
Every natural citizen has all of their medical expenses paid for. If they need to go to University of Chicago Hospital for special treatment, not only are all of their expenses paid for, but the government pays for the spouse, kids, and parents to go as well. When you get married, the governments gives you a wedding gift of a nice house, some land, and about $20,000US. There are no taxes of any kind.
There is .05% unemployment, no homelessness, and very little crime.
The UAE, of which Dubai is a state, sells 2.6 million gallons of oil each day.
Every natural citizen has all of their medical expenses paid for. If they need to go to University of Chicago Hospital for special treatment, not only are all of their expenses paid for, but the government pays for the spouse, kids, and parents to go as well. When you get married, the governments gives you a wedding gift of a nice house, some land, and about $20,000US. There are no taxes of any kind.
There is .05% unemployment, no homelessness, and very little crime.
The UAE, of which Dubai is a state, sells 2.6 million gallons of oil each day.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Freedoms taken for granted #1
I want to update the pictures on the slideshow. Easy enough. Before I left, I set up a flickr account and I have it linked to the blog so that you could see all my pretty pictures. Only problem: when I go to the fickr website, I get a big "do not enter" sign, a bunch of Arabic, and a brief notice at the bottom that says that "This site falls under the prohibited content categories of the UAE's internet access management policies."
The Shack
I am reading The Shack by William Young. Much to my surprise, it is a truly great book. The first few chapters reminded me of how much I love Ann and the boys. The continuing chapters that I have read is actually underpinned by some sound orthodoxy. There is much to pick at, but I think that it is more fruitful to enjoy the helpful images that Young paints of the Trinity.
At any rate, it has helped to shape some of the questions that I have surrounding this trip. Taking as a given that peace comes through relationship, what is our common ground for building such a relationship amongst the Abrahamic faiths?
At any rate, it has helped to shape some of the questions that I have surrounding this trip. Taking as a given that peace comes through relationship, what is our common ground for building such a relationship amongst the Abrahamic faiths?
Dubai
We have safely arrived in Dubai, a gleaming city of breathtaking, bold architecture, exceptional cleanliness and order, and an even mix of the Western and Middle East worlds. All signs are in Arabic and English. Clothing ranges from skimpy to fully covered. One fast food joint had a big sign: "Southern Fried Chicken and Kebobs."
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Where is Karl
This is the new and improved "where is Karl" blog. I decided on blogger instead of wordpress because I was too cheap to pay extra for audio and video storage.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
Posts
