Will Richardson is a gifted Nashville singer-songwriter with a wicked sense of humor. Back in May, he and I exchanged a few emails during the Jeremiah Wright controversy (remember that?) With apologies to Mick and Keith, he penned this ballad….
If you’re preaching this week and following the lectionary, you’ve been spending some time with the Parable of the Weeds and the Wheat. No doubt, this parable (more so than the Parable of the Sower, which precedes it) has an apocalyptic bent (unless you choose to ignore the ending).
Herzfeld discovered that even after the Rapture, you (assuming you’ve been Raptured) can send a messages (as well as important personal data and documents) to your friends and loved ones who get “left behind” — thanks to www.youvebeenleftbehind.com. The first-year subscription price is $40 (not sure about subsequent years, or if the fee is pro-rated if the Rapture occurs mid-year).
Me, I’m not so sure (neither is Herzfeld). As far as important information goes, I’ll take my chances in storing it the old-fashioned way. And spiritually, I have a lot of ‘work’ to do and would not presume (or even wager $40 on) being among the Rapturees. Then again, I suppose it’s about God’s goodness and steadfastness, not my own….
How much will the American people, and the church, put up with before we are lulled awake from our comfy, cozy nap to take action? How much will we compromise as Big Oil twists the gas-price thumbscrews, and other corporations follow suit, blaming it on oil prices?
Off-shore drilling? Sure, go ahead!
ANWAR? Have at it!
The environment? Fuggedaboudit. We’ve got Animal Planet and the National Geographic channels on cable, plus air conditioning and no mosquitos.
The lives of young American men and women in uniform? Just another form of cheap labor, I guess. The grunt work for Exxon-Mobil, BP, and others, outsourced to the Armed Forces.
Sorry to sound angry and discouraged. Maybe I shouldn’t have read the Book of Habakkuk this morning.
OK, I just realized it has been exactly a month since the last blog post. Sorry, ladies and gents, I really have no excuses. But I do have news.
1 - On June 1, I was ordained at Tylersville Road Christian Church in Mason, Ohio, sponsored by the congregation there and also the congregation of Carthage Christian Church in Cincinnati. It was an awesome and humbling experience. I am thankful for those who attended or sent notes of encouragement, who said a prayer for me that day, or who offered encouragement, prayers, and challenges along the way.
2 - DisciplesWorld has a page on Facebook now. So if you’re on Facebook, become a Friend or Fan of DisciplesWorld!
3 - DisciplesWorld released a DVD last month called Beyond Borders: Faith and Action in the Arizona Desert.It has its own website (and Facebook page). It’s a 25 minute documentary targeted to people of faith, about the work of volunteers on the Mexico/Arizona border who are on the front lines of the immigration situation. Disciples, UCC, Methodists, Evangelicals, Catholics, and Presbyterians are featured. To purchse the DVD, you can download an order form (PDF) from the website or call DisciplesWorld and order it by phone. Or, you can order it through Amazon.com (more convenient, but the magazine doesn’t get all the proceeds that way). The cost is $12.95. Check it out! As the producer/director, my hope is that it will be a conversation-starter for Sunday School classes and church groups. I’m also available for talks, workshops, etc. with the video.
The streams of Charmin blowing in the trees outside the local high school confirmed it: it’s graduation season.
Disciples colleges, universities, and seminaries are sending forth the Class of 2008 this month. Commencement speakers at these schools include Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, former presidential candidate George McGovern, and the esteemed Rev. Fred Craddock, who will speak at Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa this weekend.
Jeff Gill, whose wife teaches at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, attended the school’s commencement exercises last weekend where Ralph Cicerone, president of the National Academy of Sciences, addressed graduates. In “Notes to a Commencement Speaker,” Jeff shares what he wishes the speaker had told them.
‘Round here [the Woods family hacienda], it’s all about the high school graduations this year. We have two of them, plus my ordination, during a four-day span. [more on that later...]
Lots happening in the world of Disciples these days. First off, one of our writers, Lisa Barnett, is graduating in a few weeks from Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. Lisa is a Disciples M.Div. student and recently won several awards given by the faculty and her peers. She will do well wherever she goes from here. Lisa was part of our General Assembly news staff in ‘07 and has covered the Stalcup Lectures at Brite for us this year, among other things.
Next up, young adult Disciples have been making the news lately. Beau Underwood was interviewed by the Associated Press for this article on young religious voters. [Thanks, Adam Frieberg, for allowing us to use this photo of Beau in a t-shirt that complements the headline!]
Pastors Stacy Spencer and Greg Diaz were also in the news last week. The Commercial Appeal in Memphis did an excellent article about building relationships between Hispanic and black churches.
Finally, DisciplesWorld won 7 awards at the Associated Church Press conference last week in Dallas, including a runner-up award in the Best Denominational Magazine category. I mention this not so much to brag, as to say “thanks” to all those who supported the magazine through a tough financial year in 2007. Without advertisers, subscribers, donors, and readers, we would not be able to do the work that we do. It is a privelege to represent Disciples and an honor to tell your stories.
UPDATE 4/29/08: Lisa Barnett’s awards were the Colby D. Hall Award, and the Student Pastoral Ministry Award. She graduates on May 10. RW
As such, Jonathan wrote an op-ed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution yesterday defending the initiative and clarifying what it is, and is not. Chances are he’ll be doing more of this in the days to come, and he’s obviously (at least from his AJC piece) up to the task.
Meanwhile, the Southern Baptist Convention appears to be creating some distance between itself and the Climate Change Initiative, or at least clarifying the difference between an SBC action and a grassroots action by Southern Baptists. Headline on the SBC website: “Climate Change project is not SBC’s”.
SBC President Frank Page released a statement today noting that he supports the initiative but perhaps diffusing some controversy over the language in the declaration, particular this part:
We believe our current denominational engagement with these issues have often been too timid, failing to produce a unified moral voice. Our cautious response to these issues in the face of mounting evidence may be seen by the world as uncaring, reckless and ill-informed. We can do better. To abandon these issues to the secular world is to shirk from our responsibility to be salt and light. The time for timidity regarding God’s creation is no more.
We probably should hesitate to read ‘conflict’ into this though. The SBC’s polity is similar enough to the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) that we can recall having to clarify to the media and the rest of the world the difference between an action by a group of Disciples, or by our General Minister and President, as opposed to an action by the General Assembly - and that in neither case does one speak for all Disciples.
Mostly, we’re just proud to say we know Jonathan, and we encourage him to continue to rally Southern Baptist and Christians in general to care more for God’s creation. We could all learn much from him. As the declaration says, “We can do better.” That’s true for we Disciples too.
Beginning on March 10, the United Church of Christ will be running a two-week radio ad campaign on Sirius satellite radio. Accoring to a report on the UCC’s website the ads are part of the UCC’s “Stillspeaking” initiative and will include a new 60-second spot called “Telephone Tree.” The ads will air on CNN, Fox News, Sirius Left, and OutQ channels, among others.
UCC Communications Director J. Bennett Guess described the ads as “laugh-out-loud funny” — you can listen to “Telephone Tree” on the UCC website and decide for yourself. It takes a lot to make me laugh out loud (and then it’s usually something less cerebral, like a Will Farrell or Chris Farley comedy, or when the talking baby spit up during the E-Trade Super Bowl commercial) but I have to admit, I chuckled at toward the end of the Telephone Tree spot, when the recorded telephone voice says “Have a NICE day!”
In his comment on my last post, Matt Langdon correctly points out that Zimbardo, in The Lucifer Effect, doesn’t just focus on evil. He also devotes some ink to the antidote: heroism. Zimbardo’s Lucifer Effect website has a section on heroism that goes into some detail explaining what he means. For Christians looking to see how this relates to Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross, Zimbardo’s definition of heroism sounds closer to Peter Abelard’s moral theory of atonement than Anselm’s substitutionary theory. But whichever you prefer, I think it’s safe to say that for Christians, Jesus is the ultimate hero.
Speaking of theology, on taking a closer look at Zimbardo’s website I noticed that there is a link to a Lucifer Effect Theology Blog.
