Or so wrote one blogger.
I wasn't going to blog about the Terri Schiavo controversy because I don't think we can know all the facts behind the case. At least not enough to make an informed opinion.
But as Ms. Schiavo passed away today, the politics surrounding her death have been devoid of serious ethical reflection. So I share some discussion with you today.
Mary Johnson, a disabled rights activist, someone with a vested interest in the outcome of the legal ramifications of the Schaivo issue says this,
The Republicans, to my way of thinking, are likely guilty of everything we say about them. I even agree with Michael Schiavo that Tom DeLay is a "little slithering snake." But to simply yell about the Republicans, to turn this into yet another skirmish in the right-to-life, right-to-die culture wars is to miss entirely the bigger issue.
The danger faced by "incapacitated" or non-communicative persons -- people who have been declared "incompetent" and their legal rights assigned to a "guardian" -- has been worrying disability rights activists for years. It is not about the "right to life" -- it is about equal protection of the law. Over a dozen national disability groups have repeatedly urged Constitutional review of cases like Schiavo's . It doesn't happen. If it had happened with Schiavo, we wouldn't be at this sorry pass.
Now Sen. Tom Harkin (D.-IA), a man with impeccable liberal credentials, is proposing such a law. Not for Terri Schiavo, but for the rest of us.
"In a case like this, where someone is incapacitated and their life support can be taken away, it seems to me that it is appropriate -- where there is a dispute, as there is in this case -- that a federal court come in, like we do in habeas corpus situations, and review it." Harkin told reporters he was hopeful that Congress would address such legislation sometime soon.
(read the whole thing here)
Clearly, this issue is not about Ms. Schiavo as much as it has to do with Republicans shoring up their Right-to-life base.
Which begs the question, as EJ Dionne, does:
What does it mean to be pro-life?
The label is thrown around in American politics so blithely that you'd imagine it refers to some workaday issue such as a tax bill or a trade agreement. Might the one good thing to come out of the rancid politics surrounding the Terri Schiavo case be a serious discussion of the meaning of that term?
Dionne goes on to say,
What does it mean to be pro-life? As far as I can tell, most of those who would keep Schiavo alive favor the death penalty. Most favored allowing the assault weapons ban to expire and oppose other forms of gun control. The president makes an excellent point when he says we "ought to err on the side of life." It's a shame how rarely that principle is put into practice.
The Religious Right can stammer all they want about a "culture of life," but when the rubber hits the road, they pick and choose their battles willy-nilly.
Perhaps the biggest loser was Ms.Schiavo herself, when the political circus that emerged as her life was being taken from her, denied her the dignity that should come from those seeking to live out the "culture of life."
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Where Faith Thrives...
...conservative Christians in the U.S. should take heed. Christianity is thriving where it faces obstacles, like repression in China or suspicion of evangelicals in parts of Latin America and Africa. In those countries where religion enjoys privileges - Britain, Italy, Ireland, Spain or Iran - that establishment support seems to have stifled faith.
That's worth remembering in the debates about school prayers or public displays of the Ten Commandments: faith doesn't need any special leg up. Look at where religion is most vibrant today, talk to those who walk five hours to services, and the obvious conclusion is that what nurtures faith is not special privileges but rather adversity.
Read the rest here.
(NY Times, registration required)
Another great column by Nicholas Kristof. (Thanks to Jordan Cooper)
I've been deeply troubled, as of late, by many well-meaning Christians who believe that, because Jesus is the way of salvation, this means that Christians should have special priviledges (i.e., school prayer, Ten Commandments, the so-called "biblical perspective" on marriage, immigration for Christians only, etc).
As Kristof rightly points out, Christianity flourishes went it is under attack. I mean a REAL attack. North American Christianity is NOT under attack. Despite the best efforts of some right wing Christians to be manufacture an identity of victimhood. We can still worship freely. We can teach our children according to our own beliefs. We don't cower in basements to receive Holy Communion, terrified of a knock at the door.
Jesus told his followers to "rejoice and be glad when you are reviled and persecuted in my name." Jesus didn't say "be outraged at such insolence toward God's people!" And Jesus certainly didn't say, "Wage war against unbelievers. Fight for a Christian culture. Be culture warriors!"
Jesus said to love our enemies and to do good to those who persecute us.
Loving our enemies. Living good news. That's what makes faith thrive. Not by waging war against the culture.
That's worth remembering in the debates about school prayers or public displays of the Ten Commandments: faith doesn't need any special leg up. Look at where religion is most vibrant today, talk to those who walk five hours to services, and the obvious conclusion is that what nurtures faith is not special privileges but rather adversity.
Read the rest here.
(NY Times, registration required)
Another great column by Nicholas Kristof. (Thanks to Jordan Cooper)
I've been deeply troubled, as of late, by many well-meaning Christians who believe that, because Jesus is the way of salvation, this means that Christians should have special priviledges (i.e., school prayer, Ten Commandments, the so-called "biblical perspective" on marriage, immigration for Christians only, etc).
As Kristof rightly points out, Christianity flourishes went it is under attack. I mean a REAL attack. North American Christianity is NOT under attack. Despite the best efforts of some right wing Christians to be manufacture an identity of victimhood. We can still worship freely. We can teach our children according to our own beliefs. We don't cower in basements to receive Holy Communion, terrified of a knock at the door.
Jesus told his followers to "rejoice and be glad when you are reviled and persecuted in my name." Jesus didn't say "be outraged at such insolence toward God's people!" And Jesus certainly didn't say, "Wage war against unbelievers. Fight for a Christian culture. Be culture warriors!"
Jesus said to love our enemies and to do good to those who persecute us.
Loving our enemies. Living good news. That's what makes faith thrive. Not by waging war against the culture.
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
More from Ralph's World: "William Lyon Mackenzie King was a pervert"
William Lyon Mackenzie King was not the pervert that Alberta Premier Ralph Klein seems to think he was, a historian insisted yesterday.
During a speech last Thursday at Harvard University, Klein remarked his event was sponsored by an endowment fund named after King.
“The reason I sort of chuckled at being compared to Mackenzie King is that he was touted as being somewhat of a pervert,” Klein said.
Read the rest here.
Mackenzie King was many things: prick, dictator, thug. But a pervert?
Ralph just makes it too easy. Thanks to CalgaryGrit.
During a speech last Thursday at Harvard University, Klein remarked his event was sponsored by an endowment fund named after King.
“The reason I sort of chuckled at being compared to Mackenzie King is that he was touted as being somewhat of a pervert,” Klein said.
Read the rest here.
Mackenzie King was many things: prick, dictator, thug. But a pervert?
Ralph just makes it too easy. Thanks to CalgaryGrit.
Pope being fed by a tube
VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope John Paul is getting nutrition from a tube in his nose, the Vatican said Wednesday, shortly after the frail pontiff appeared at his window in St. Peter's Square and managed only a rasp when he tried to speak.
Read the rest here.
I wonder if some conservative Christians will sieze upon this, adding fuel to the Schaivo fire.
While I may have my differences with John Paul II, I pray for him a peaceful and holy death.
Read the rest here.
I wonder if some conservative Christians will sieze upon this, adding fuel to the Schaivo fire.
While I may have my differences with John Paul II, I pray for him a peaceful and holy death.
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Why Jews don't see Easter the way Christians do
About a month before Easter this year, I received a poignant letter from a prominent Seattle-area evangelical Christian businessman, a passionate activist for Israel. He wrote to invite me for a kosher meal at his home — and to discuss Jesus.
He did not, he promised, intend to evangelize me, a believing Jew. Rather, as a leader in the growing movement of Christians and Jews allying on behalf of the Jewish state, he was puzzled about what we Jews believe about the Christian savior. He was, he said, "ashamed that I never engaged my friends in what is the most important aspect of their lives, their faith, simply because some Christians — not Jews — told me to never ask these questions of my Jewish friends, or risk deeply offending them."
Read the rest here.
He did not, he promised, intend to evangelize me, a believing Jew. Rather, as a leader in the growing movement of Christians and Jews allying on behalf of the Jewish state, he was puzzled about what we Jews believe about the Christian savior. He was, he said, "ashamed that I never engaged my friends in what is the most important aspect of their lives, their faith, simply because some Christians — not Jews — told me to never ask these questions of my Jewish friends, or risk deeply offending them."
Read the rest here.
Thomas Merton on Resurrection
But now the power of Easter has burst upon us with the resurrection of Christ. Now we find in ourselves a strength which is not our own, and which is freely given to us whenever we need it, raising us above the Law, giving us a new law which is hidden in Christ: the law of His merciful love for us. Now we no longer strive to be good because we have to, because it is a duty, but because our joy is to please Him who has given all His love to us! Now our life is full of meaning!
… To understand Easter and live it, we must renounce our dread of newness and of freedom!
From: Seasons of Celebration by Thomas Merton (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York 1986), Pages 145-46.
… To understand Easter and live it, we must renounce our dread of newness and of freedom!
From: Seasons of Celebration by Thomas Merton (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York 1986), Pages 145-46.
Sunday, March 27, 2005
Sermon: Day of Resurrection
If the resurrection happened, if both Marys, and the disciples, and the whole lot of them were telling the truth - that Jesus our friend and brother lives – then death has no permanent power over us.
While we do suffer and die, death will not be able to hold us – for God has chosen a path of life and freedom for Jesus, and through Jesus, for the whole world.
In other words, death will not have the last word.
The Iraq war will not be the last world. The AIDS crisis the Africa will not be the last word. The atrocities in Sudan will not have the last word.
Your cancer will not have the last word. Your failed marriage will not have the last word. Your grief will not have the last word. That bottle will not have the last word.
Jesus’ resurrection will have the last word.
How do we grasp the truth of that?
One small child asked another, “Aren’t you afraid to walk through the cemetery on your way home?”
“No,” the other replied, “I simply cross it to get home.”
Death is like that. You can still be afraid – and we are all often afraid – but death and the grave is not the final destination for us. Home is.
The 2 Marys knew all about this. These two women, along with the other women who followed Jesus were the only of his disciples not to scatter when Jesus was arrested. They stayed with him through the flogging. They watched in a horrified stupor as Jesus was nailed to the cross. They hung their heads in grief when Jesus hung his in death. They washed his body. They placed it in the tomb.
They saw through tear-stained eyes that God does not make the crucifixion disappear. The resurrection is not simply a show of God’s power and wonder and majesty. They saw that Jesus wasn’t simply raised with an earthquake, bright lights, with a burst of the halleluiah chorus, to wow us with God’s ultimate cosmic power. God wasn’t looking for the Oscar for best special effects.
Instead, Jesus was raised without anyone watching. The 2 Mary’s didn’t see it. The big news isn’t the special effects, the awesome power of God. The big news is that the tomb was empty. Probably the most subtle miracle in the bible.
Crucifixion – suffering – isn’t explained away, done away with – instead it’s left there to trouble us. Jesus rose from the dead but his wounds didn’t disappear.
We given instead the gift of hope – yes, there will be death, but there will be new life. Why not the big gift right here, right now, the one where God deletes it from the human experience? I don’t know. We’re not told.
But life cannot be found in a grave yard, and there is no life in an empty tomb. Like the 2 Mary’s at the tomb, we do not need to walk through the cemeteries looking for life – instead we can find Life all around us.
What does this look like, Life all around us?
Well, it doesn’t mean that all is sweetness and light, but there is a sweetness to life, and a gentle beauty and hope that is present and always coming to birth.
***
Her art is full of astonishingly joyful scenes, brightly coloured, of her life and the people around her; scenes of life on the water, farm life, of oxen, of child playing beside the railroad tracks, a drive in the country. Her artwork has excellent compositional form and line, despite her crippled up body and scrunched up hands due to a bout with polio as a child. She lived in a tiny one-room house – about the size of my office - with no electricity or running water. She was poor, even by fishing village standards.
Yet, despite these difficulties, Nova Scotian folk artist Maude Lewis graced the world with the gift of her art. Her pieces are burst with the joy of life: “just to be alive is a blessing. Just to live is holy.”
They hadn’t said a civil word to each other in weeks. Each grunt, each snore, the way she picked at her food, the way he didn’t really take her needs seriously, all pointed in one direction: divorce. Early one evening after a typically tense and silent dinner, she was doing the dishes and he was taking out the trash. They caught a glance of each other in the corners of their eyes, smiled, and asked each other what happened to the fulfilling, joy-drenched relationship they once shared. They put the kids to bed and stayed up all night talking, for the first time in months if not years, and over a glass of wine, they shared the concerns of their hearts, their pains, their frustrations, with an honesty that hadn’t been felt since before they were married. They prayed. They cried. Little by little a new relationship sprouted. They knew the future was going to be hard work, but now they were ready to fight for their marriage. Their crucifixion had not disappeared, but together, their marriage found New Life.
She survived, terribly scarred, but her brothers did not. You probably know her picture more than her name. Phan Thi Kim Phuc is the woman whose picture came to represent the horrors of the Vietnam war: a 9 year old victim running naked through the streets, her clothes burned off by napalm.
Vietnam veteran pilot John Plummer had been part of the bombing raid on the village of Trang Bang in 1972. He since became a Methodist minister, but the horrors of what he did during the war did not leave him.
In 1997, Kim Phuc was asked to speak at the Vietnam Memorial on Veteran’s Day. Unaware that John Plummer was in the crowd, Kim spoke and said that if she met the pilot who bombed their village she would tell him that she forgave him; for they could not change the past, but they hoped they could work together to build the future.
Hesitatingly, John Plummer approached her after her speech. He writes about their meeting, “She saw my grief, my pain, and my sorrow. She held out her arms to me and embraced me. All I could say was ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry.’ over and over again. At the same time she was saying, ‘It’s all right, it’s all right; I forgive, I forgive.”
Eventually, they spent more time together, and as a Christian herself, she invited Plummer to join with her in a joint ministry.
Their reconciliation didn’t make Kim’s crucifixion disappear – but Life was present.
We are given a resurrection hope. We are a resurrection people. Not just a people who believe in the resurrection, but a resurrection people.
In the words of poet Denise Levertov:
We have only begun to love the earth.
We have only begun to imagine the fullness of life.
How could we tire of hope?
So much is in bud. How can desire fail?
We have only just begun to imagine justice and mercy,
Only begun to envision how it might be to live as siblings with beast and flower,
Not as oppressors…There is too much broken that must be mended,
Too much hurt we have done to each other that cannot yet be forgiven.
We have only begun to know the power that is in us if we would join our solitudes in the communion of struggle.
So much is unfolding that must complete its gesture,
So much is in bud.
That’s the gift of Easter – life in the bud and the promise that it will bloom to the full. Jesus’ resurrection gives us back to ourselves: claimed by God’s love, promised new and everlasting life, blessed with forgiveness, we are given back to the world and to each other, free from death, free from fear. We have been re-born as a resurrection people. That is our news – our good news – so today we rejoice, because Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen, indeed! Alleluia! Amen!
While we do suffer and die, death will not be able to hold us – for God has chosen a path of life and freedom for Jesus, and through Jesus, for the whole world.
In other words, death will not have the last word.
The Iraq war will not be the last world. The AIDS crisis the Africa will not be the last word. The atrocities in Sudan will not have the last word.
Your cancer will not have the last word. Your failed marriage will not have the last word. Your grief will not have the last word. That bottle will not have the last word.
Jesus’ resurrection will have the last word.
How do we grasp the truth of that?
One small child asked another, “Aren’t you afraid to walk through the cemetery on your way home?”
“No,” the other replied, “I simply cross it to get home.”
Death is like that. You can still be afraid – and we are all often afraid – but death and the grave is not the final destination for us. Home is.
The 2 Marys knew all about this. These two women, along with the other women who followed Jesus were the only of his disciples not to scatter when Jesus was arrested. They stayed with him through the flogging. They watched in a horrified stupor as Jesus was nailed to the cross. They hung their heads in grief when Jesus hung his in death. They washed his body. They placed it in the tomb.
They saw through tear-stained eyes that God does not make the crucifixion disappear. The resurrection is not simply a show of God’s power and wonder and majesty. They saw that Jesus wasn’t simply raised with an earthquake, bright lights, with a burst of the halleluiah chorus, to wow us with God’s ultimate cosmic power. God wasn’t looking for the Oscar for best special effects.
Instead, Jesus was raised without anyone watching. The 2 Mary’s didn’t see it. The big news isn’t the special effects, the awesome power of God. The big news is that the tomb was empty. Probably the most subtle miracle in the bible.
Crucifixion – suffering – isn’t explained away, done away with – instead it’s left there to trouble us. Jesus rose from the dead but his wounds didn’t disappear.
We given instead the gift of hope – yes, there will be death, but there will be new life. Why not the big gift right here, right now, the one where God deletes it from the human experience? I don’t know. We’re not told.
But life cannot be found in a grave yard, and there is no life in an empty tomb. Like the 2 Mary’s at the tomb, we do not need to walk through the cemeteries looking for life – instead we can find Life all around us.
What does this look like, Life all around us?
Well, it doesn’t mean that all is sweetness and light, but there is a sweetness to life, and a gentle beauty and hope that is present and always coming to birth.
***
Her art is full of astonishingly joyful scenes, brightly coloured, of her life and the people around her; scenes of life on the water, farm life, of oxen, of child playing beside the railroad tracks, a drive in the country. Her artwork has excellent compositional form and line, despite her crippled up body and scrunched up hands due to a bout with polio as a child. She lived in a tiny one-room house – about the size of my office - with no electricity or running water. She was poor, even by fishing village standards.
Yet, despite these difficulties, Nova Scotian folk artist Maude Lewis graced the world with the gift of her art. Her pieces are burst with the joy of life: “just to be alive is a blessing. Just to live is holy.”
They hadn’t said a civil word to each other in weeks. Each grunt, each snore, the way she picked at her food, the way he didn’t really take her needs seriously, all pointed in one direction: divorce. Early one evening after a typically tense and silent dinner, she was doing the dishes and he was taking out the trash. They caught a glance of each other in the corners of their eyes, smiled, and asked each other what happened to the fulfilling, joy-drenched relationship they once shared. They put the kids to bed and stayed up all night talking, for the first time in months if not years, and over a glass of wine, they shared the concerns of their hearts, their pains, their frustrations, with an honesty that hadn’t been felt since before they were married. They prayed. They cried. Little by little a new relationship sprouted. They knew the future was going to be hard work, but now they were ready to fight for their marriage. Their crucifixion had not disappeared, but together, their marriage found New Life.
She survived, terribly scarred, but her brothers did not. You probably know her picture more than her name. Phan Thi Kim Phuc is the woman whose picture came to represent the horrors of the Vietnam war: a 9 year old victim running naked through the streets, her clothes burned off by napalm.
Vietnam veteran pilot John Plummer had been part of the bombing raid on the village of Trang Bang in 1972. He since became a Methodist minister, but the horrors of what he did during the war did not leave him.
In 1997, Kim Phuc was asked to speak at the Vietnam Memorial on Veteran’s Day. Unaware that John Plummer was in the crowd, Kim spoke and said that if she met the pilot who bombed their village she would tell him that she forgave him; for they could not change the past, but they hoped they could work together to build the future.
Hesitatingly, John Plummer approached her after her speech. He writes about their meeting, “She saw my grief, my pain, and my sorrow. She held out her arms to me and embraced me. All I could say was ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry.’ over and over again. At the same time she was saying, ‘It’s all right, it’s all right; I forgive, I forgive.”
Eventually, they spent more time together, and as a Christian herself, she invited Plummer to join with her in a joint ministry.
Their reconciliation didn’t make Kim’s crucifixion disappear – but Life was present.
We are given a resurrection hope. We are a resurrection people. Not just a people who believe in the resurrection, but a resurrection people.
In the words of poet Denise Levertov:
We have only begun to love the earth.
We have only begun to imagine the fullness of life.
How could we tire of hope?
So much is in bud. How can desire fail?
We have only just begun to imagine justice and mercy,
Only begun to envision how it might be to live as siblings with beast and flower,
Not as oppressors…There is too much broken that must be mended,
Too much hurt we have done to each other that cannot yet be forgiven.
We have only begun to know the power that is in us if we would join our solitudes in the communion of struggle.
So much is unfolding that must complete its gesture,
So much is in bud.
That’s the gift of Easter – life in the bud and the promise that it will bloom to the full. Jesus’ resurrection gives us back to ourselves: claimed by God’s love, promised new and everlasting life, blessed with forgiveness, we are given back to the world and to each other, free from death, free from fear. We have been re-born as a resurrection people. That is our news – our good news – so today we rejoice, because Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen, indeed! Alleluia! Amen!
Saturday, March 26, 2005
A great new blog
My friend Sara has started a blog. Check it out!
Here's a clip:
If God is with us, and we can risk living from a place of self-love, then maybe we can risk living a life of love for others. Live a life that sees injustice as God sees it and risk doing something to make at least a little bit of the world better. We do so not with only our own trembling hands, or to gain our salvation, but with the power of God working alongside of us as we re-build and re-create God’s vision of manna and mercy for all, right here, right now, wherever we are. Heaven isn’t lightyears away, it exists wherever love and grace and acceptance and life are allowed to rule.
Great stuff! Thanks, Sara for sharing your creative energies with the world!
Here's a clip:
If God is with us, and we can risk living from a place of self-love, then maybe we can risk living a life of love for others. Live a life that sees injustice as God sees it and risk doing something to make at least a little bit of the world better. We do so not with only our own trembling hands, or to gain our salvation, but with the power of God working alongside of us as we re-build and re-create God’s vision of manna and mercy for all, right here, right now, wherever we are. Heaven isn’t lightyears away, it exists wherever love and grace and acceptance and life are allowed to rule.
Great stuff! Thanks, Sara for sharing your creative energies with the world!
Friday, March 25, 2005
Maundy Thursday Sermon
“It helps now and then to step back and take a long
view. The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of
saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection, no pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the Church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives include everything.
This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water the seeds already planted knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing this. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.”
So wrote Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador who, 25 years ago tonight, having just said Jesus’ words of institution at Holy Communion, “This is my body which is given up for you…This is my blood which is shed for you,” was felled by an assassin’s bullet.
At his funeral Mass, government death squads firebombed and machine-gunned mourners. Just another massacre in that beleaguered country.
Oscar Arnulfo Romero is now an important figure--a symbol of commitment, self-sacrifice and hope--not just in El Salvador, but throughout Latin America and the world.
What many admire most is Romero’s personal transformation from his beginnings as a strict, conservative priest and friend of the wealthy elite.
Early on when he was Auxiliary Bishop, Romero accused supporters of new theological currents prioritizing pastoral work with the poor of being Marxists and poisoning the minds of youth.
In 1975, after the National Guard murdered six campesinos in Trés Calles, Romero—now a Bishop—refused calls that he publicly denounce the massacre, choosing instead to send a private letter to then-President Molina. Romero also did not want to believe reports that rich landowners of coffee and cotton plantations in his diocese were paying workers less than the legal minimum wage, itself a pitiful sum.
Yet Romero agreed to go out and visit the plantations to see for himself if what his priests were telling him was true. The reality of exploitation and suffering he came to know from that visit--and subsequent ones--were to change him forever.
Oscar Romero became Archbishop of San Salvador in 1977, the candidate of choice of the rich, who opposed the more progressive Bishop Rivera y Damas, widely favoured by the people in the pew. But less than one month after he was installed, Romero was deeply moved and angered by the murder of his friend Father Rutilio Grande, who had supported efforts by the poor farmers or campesinos in his parish to form organizations to defend their rights.
Romero advised the Salvadoran President he would no longer attend any government functions until those responsible for the killing were identified and brought to justice. It was an ultimatum to which he would hold for the next three years until he was assassinated. Romero had changed. He had begun to raise his voice for the gospel
.
That voice got stronger as the toll of priests, catechists, labour activists and campesino organizers butchered by the death squads rose. Romero publicly denounced the repression but he went much further than that, denouncing as well the hugely unequal distribution of wealth and power in El Salvador that lay at the heart of the violence. "The cause of all our unrest is the oligarchy, that small nucleus of families who don’t care about the hunger of the people, but only think of their own need for abundant cheap labour to harvest and export their crops," Archbishop Romero told a journalist in a February 1980 interview.
"Salvadoran and foreign-owned industries base their ability to compete in international markets on starvation wages," the Archbishop stated categorically. "This explains their complete opposition to any type of reforms or to trade union organizations that strive to improve the living conditions of grass roots sectors."
Of course, the usual accusations were made: “Romero’s a communist. He’s a Soviet spy. He’s an enemy of free enterprise. Stick to religion, Father. Don’t meddle in things you no nothing about.”
Easily dismissed. Turn him into a partisan political hack. Accuse him of disturbing the peace. If he gets too uppity, get rid of him.
Sound familiar?
I tell you Romero’s story, not just because today is the 25th anniversary of his death, or because he was murdered while celebrating Holy Communion, but because his life so vibrantly resonated with the life of Jesus. His life shouted good news. His ministry nourished the people he was called to serve and still provides hope for millions of people around the world.
Romero walked the hard road of salvation.
Despite his admirer’s best efforts, Romero shunned sainthood. He would not be dismissed so easily. Romero trembled at the thought of being murdered. He longed for the days when tragedies and atrocities failed to touch him within the cloister of his book-lined study. He hungered and hurt for a country mired in despair.
In other words, he was deeply human. But touched by God to bear witness to the kingdom of God that was present among them but just outside of their grasp. His life pointed to a different world; a world where peace and forgiveness was as natural as breathing, a world where love and compassion overwhelmed greed and violence. A world where Jesus’ message of the kingdom of God could be powerfully alive. “Put down those guns. Stop the repression. Believe the good news.”
“As a Christian,” he once wrote, “I don’t believe in death without resurrection. If they kill me, I will rise again in the Salvadorian people. I am not boasting, I say this with great humility…My hope is that my blood will be like a seed of liberty.”
When Jesus gathered with his friends that night, they remembered liberation. They remembered how a disgraced, murdering prince-turned-shepherd named Moses, led God’s people to freedom with nothing in his hands but a crook and the power of God. Jesus and his friends said prayers. They told the ancient stories. They wondered how that event so many years ago could make a difference in their lives.
That’s when Jesus took the bread, blessed and broke it, and passed it around saying, “This is my body given for you, for your freedom.” Jesus then took the cup, blessed it and gave it to his friends saying, “This is my blood, poured out for your liberation, when you drink it, drink it in remembrance of me.”
Do this in remembrance of me…remember me by living my message. Remember me by being good news. Remember me showing the world the kingdom of God is alive among.
As one wise writer puts it, “If the wafers are going stale for you, be the bread yourself. Break yourself open and nourish the world.
“If the communion table seems cheap and tacky, become a table yourself. Be a resting place for the weary.
“If you feel there are no more angels, pick up the phone and spread your own [glad] tidings.
“Gather your bread. Set your table. Shout your good news.
“Do these things in remembrance of HIM.”
view. The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of
saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection, no pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the Church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives include everything.
This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water the seeds already planted knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing this. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.”
So wrote Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador who, 25 years ago tonight, having just said Jesus’ words of institution at Holy Communion, “This is my body which is given up for you…This is my blood which is shed for you,” was felled by an assassin’s bullet.
At his funeral Mass, government death squads firebombed and machine-gunned mourners. Just another massacre in that beleaguered country.
Oscar Arnulfo Romero is now an important figure--a symbol of commitment, self-sacrifice and hope--not just in El Salvador, but throughout Latin America and the world.
What many admire most is Romero’s personal transformation from his beginnings as a strict, conservative priest and friend of the wealthy elite.
Early on when he was Auxiliary Bishop, Romero accused supporters of new theological currents prioritizing pastoral work with the poor of being Marxists and poisoning the minds of youth.
In 1975, after the National Guard murdered six campesinos in Trés Calles, Romero—now a Bishop—refused calls that he publicly denounce the massacre, choosing instead to send a private letter to then-President Molina. Romero also did not want to believe reports that rich landowners of coffee and cotton plantations in his diocese were paying workers less than the legal minimum wage, itself a pitiful sum.
Yet Romero agreed to go out and visit the plantations to see for himself if what his priests were telling him was true. The reality of exploitation and suffering he came to know from that visit--and subsequent ones--were to change him forever.
Oscar Romero became Archbishop of San Salvador in 1977, the candidate of choice of the rich, who opposed the more progressive Bishop Rivera y Damas, widely favoured by the people in the pew. But less than one month after he was installed, Romero was deeply moved and angered by the murder of his friend Father Rutilio Grande, who had supported efforts by the poor farmers or campesinos in his parish to form organizations to defend their rights.
Romero advised the Salvadoran President he would no longer attend any government functions until those responsible for the killing were identified and brought to justice. It was an ultimatum to which he would hold for the next three years until he was assassinated. Romero had changed. He had begun to raise his voice for the gospel
.
That voice got stronger as the toll of priests, catechists, labour activists and campesino organizers butchered by the death squads rose. Romero publicly denounced the repression but he went much further than that, denouncing as well the hugely unequal distribution of wealth and power in El Salvador that lay at the heart of the violence. "The cause of all our unrest is the oligarchy, that small nucleus of families who don’t care about the hunger of the people, but only think of their own need for abundant cheap labour to harvest and export their crops," Archbishop Romero told a journalist in a February 1980 interview.
"Salvadoran and foreign-owned industries base their ability to compete in international markets on starvation wages," the Archbishop stated categorically. "This explains their complete opposition to any type of reforms or to trade union organizations that strive to improve the living conditions of grass roots sectors."
Of course, the usual accusations were made: “Romero’s a communist. He’s a Soviet spy. He’s an enemy of free enterprise. Stick to religion, Father. Don’t meddle in things you no nothing about.”
Easily dismissed. Turn him into a partisan political hack. Accuse him of disturbing the peace. If he gets too uppity, get rid of him.
Sound familiar?
I tell you Romero’s story, not just because today is the 25th anniversary of his death, or because he was murdered while celebrating Holy Communion, but because his life so vibrantly resonated with the life of Jesus. His life shouted good news. His ministry nourished the people he was called to serve and still provides hope for millions of people around the world.
Romero walked the hard road of salvation.
Despite his admirer’s best efforts, Romero shunned sainthood. He would not be dismissed so easily. Romero trembled at the thought of being murdered. He longed for the days when tragedies and atrocities failed to touch him within the cloister of his book-lined study. He hungered and hurt for a country mired in despair.
In other words, he was deeply human. But touched by God to bear witness to the kingdom of God that was present among them but just outside of their grasp. His life pointed to a different world; a world where peace and forgiveness was as natural as breathing, a world where love and compassion overwhelmed greed and violence. A world where Jesus’ message of the kingdom of God could be powerfully alive. “Put down those guns. Stop the repression. Believe the good news.”
“As a Christian,” he once wrote, “I don’t believe in death without resurrection. If they kill me, I will rise again in the Salvadorian people. I am not boasting, I say this with great humility…My hope is that my blood will be like a seed of liberty.”
When Jesus gathered with his friends that night, they remembered liberation. They remembered how a disgraced, murdering prince-turned-shepherd named Moses, led God’s people to freedom with nothing in his hands but a crook and the power of God. Jesus and his friends said prayers. They told the ancient stories. They wondered how that event so many years ago could make a difference in their lives.
That’s when Jesus took the bread, blessed and broke it, and passed it around saying, “This is my body given for you, for your freedom.” Jesus then took the cup, blessed it and gave it to his friends saying, “This is my blood, poured out for your liberation, when you drink it, drink it in remembrance of me.”
Do this in remembrance of me…remember me by living my message. Remember me by being good news. Remember me showing the world the kingdom of God is alive among.
As one wise writer puts it, “If the wafers are going stale for you, be the bread yourself. Break yourself open and nourish the world.
“If the communion table seems cheap and tacky, become a table yourself. Be a resting place for the weary.
“If you feel there are no more angels, pick up the phone and spread your own [glad] tidings.
“Gather your bread. Set your table. Shout your good news.
“Do these things in remembrance of HIM.”
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Oscar Romero: A Prophet of a Future Not His Own
It helps now and then to step back and take a long
view. The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of
saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection, no pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the Church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives include everything.
This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water the seeds already planted knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing this. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.”
Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador who, 25 years ago today, having just said Jesus’ words of institution at Holy Communion, “This is my body which is given up for you…This is my blood which is shed for you,” was felled by an assassin's bullet.
view. The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of
saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection, no pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the Church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives include everything.
This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water the seeds already planted knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing this. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.”
Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador who, 25 years ago today, having just said Jesus’ words of institution at Holy Communion, “This is my body which is given up for you…This is my blood which is shed for you,” was felled by an assassin's bullet.
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
More Evidence of Christianity Today's Hard Right Turn
Christianity Today, until George W Bush's re-election last year, was a moderate evangelical voice. I used to really like the magazine. As long as the topic wasn't baptism or free will I could pretty much get on side with much of what was published. Heck, I even published an article in Leadership Journal, their sister publication.
Then, today I found this in my email box.
This week, the eyes of the world are turned toward the family and fate of Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman whose feeding tube was recently removed. As Congress intervenes and right-to-life groups lobby in D.C., many are calling this the next great rallying point for Christian conservatives seeking to build a culture of life. For more information and a variety of opinions about the ethical implications of the Terri Schiavo case, visit our special section. There you'll find information to help you create an informed opinion and pray more effectively
You need to check out the special section highlighted to explore their "variety of opinions."
I'm no journalism expert, but when I saw "variety of opinions" I expected a diversity of views on such an ethically complex issue. What does it mean to live? Does the basics of life mean simply to have a beating heart? Does "quality" of life factor in? Why? Why not? If so, how do we define "quality?"
I thought there might be new details of the case. New evidence other than what we've already seen a thousand times on CNN. Truthfully, I know very little about this case other than the pictures on TV (which, who knows when they were taken?) and listening to the heated political rhetoric coming from the US Congress and White House. I went looking for more information than was readily available to me. Surely, Christianity Today, the Grand Old Publication, could help out?
But no.
Instead, I was treated to a "variety of perspectives" from people who agree with one another. They've defined the parametres of the debate so closely that any moral ambiguity expunged under the dogmatic "culture of life" language. But where was the "culture of life" stuff during the lead up to the Iraq war? The Abu Ghib controversy? The bankrupcy bill? George W Bush's record on capital punishment?
For added pleasure, I was given a "Related Topics" section at the end with an article that asks this disturbing question: "Can God Reach the Mentally Disabled?
Are mentally challenged adults whose intellectual age is probably that of a 1-year-old sheltered under God's salvation?"
Is there a Christian alive who is so perplexed by whether or not mentally challenged people are "sheltered under God's salvation" that they need to trot out Lewis Smeades to ease their fears? This sounds like decision theology run amok. "If you can't 'choose Jesus' then you can't be saved." Salvation by choice, not by faith. The question itself assumes terrible theology. Neo-pelagianism, pure and simple.
Where now, is the voice of the moderate evangelical? Where can us orthodox mainliners find common ground with our evangelical sisters and brothers?
I'm afraid that the rise of the Religious Right and the ascension of George W Bush as the so-called "Christian president" has emboldened the much of the evangelical community to a degree where they may gain the whole world yet forfeit their souls.
Then, today I found this in my email box.
This week, the eyes of the world are turned toward the family and fate of Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman whose feeding tube was recently removed. As Congress intervenes and right-to-life groups lobby in D.C., many are calling this the next great rallying point for Christian conservatives seeking to build a culture of life. For more information and a variety of opinions about the ethical implications of the Terri Schiavo case, visit our special section. There you'll find information to help you create an informed opinion and pray more effectively
You need to check out the special section highlighted to explore their "variety of opinions."
I'm no journalism expert, but when I saw "variety of opinions" I expected a diversity of views on such an ethically complex issue. What does it mean to live? Does the basics of life mean simply to have a beating heart? Does "quality" of life factor in? Why? Why not? If so, how do we define "quality?"
I thought there might be new details of the case. New evidence other than what we've already seen a thousand times on CNN. Truthfully, I know very little about this case other than the pictures on TV (which, who knows when they were taken?) and listening to the heated political rhetoric coming from the US Congress and White House. I went looking for more information than was readily available to me. Surely, Christianity Today, the Grand Old Publication, could help out?
But no.
Instead, I was treated to a "variety of perspectives" from people who agree with one another. They've defined the parametres of the debate so closely that any moral ambiguity expunged under the dogmatic "culture of life" language. But where was the "culture of life" stuff during the lead up to the Iraq war? The Abu Ghib controversy? The bankrupcy bill? George W Bush's record on capital punishment?
For added pleasure, I was given a "Related Topics" section at the end with an article that asks this disturbing question: "Can God Reach the Mentally Disabled?
Are mentally challenged adults whose intellectual age is probably that of a 1-year-old sheltered under God's salvation?"
Is there a Christian alive who is so perplexed by whether or not mentally challenged people are "sheltered under God's salvation" that they need to trot out Lewis Smeades to ease their fears? This sounds like decision theology run amok. "If you can't 'choose Jesus' then you can't be saved." Salvation by choice, not by faith. The question itself assumes terrible theology. Neo-pelagianism, pure and simple.
Where now, is the voice of the moderate evangelical? Where can us orthodox mainliners find common ground with our evangelical sisters and brothers?
I'm afraid that the rise of the Religious Right and the ascension of George W Bush as the so-called "Christian president" has emboldened the much of the evangelical community to a degree where they may gain the whole world yet forfeit their souls.
Anglican bishops in Scotland say gays not barred from priesthood
More grist for the mill...
London (ENI). Leaders of the Scottish Episcopal Church have added fuel to a controversy dividing their Anglican Communion worldwide by declaring for the first time that in their church practising homosexuals are not barred from becoming priests. They also criticised the leaders of the 78-million communion for seeking to isolate Anglican churches in North America following the consecration of an openly gay bishop in the United States and the introduction of a blessing for same-sex couples in a part of Canada.
I'm guessing that new alliances will form and an alternate Anglican Communion will emerge, with the North American, South African, and Scottish churches playing a prominent role.
But that's just a guess.
However, I wonder, if in the event of a split within the ELCA and/or ELCIC a broader Lutheran/Anglican partnership will form. Not that I'm anxious to be part of such an arrangement, but given our latest agreements and shared ministries, it seems very likely that these relationships could easily grow into a more organic union.
London (ENI). Leaders of the Scottish Episcopal Church have added fuel to a controversy dividing their Anglican Communion worldwide by declaring for the first time that in their church practising homosexuals are not barred from becoming priests. They also criticised the leaders of the 78-million communion for seeking to isolate Anglican churches in North America following the consecration of an openly gay bishop in the United States and the introduction of a blessing for same-sex couples in a part of Canada.
I'm guessing that new alliances will form and an alternate Anglican Communion will emerge, with the North American, South African, and Scottish churches playing a prominent role.
But that's just a guess.
However, I wonder, if in the event of a split within the ELCA and/or ELCIC a broader Lutheran/Anglican partnership will form. Not that I'm anxious to be part of such an arrangement, but given our latest agreements and shared ministries, it seems very likely that these relationships could easily grow into a more organic union.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)