Thursday, October 7, 2010
Grilled Cheesus
The recent episode of Glee, "Grilled Cheesus", reminded me about the importance of letting people believe their own ideas about God. The question of theophany, or where suffering comes from and to what end, is one that has split many people away from the idea of a God. After all, how could a benevolent all knowing all powerful God allow suffering in the world? Well, what if we have that view of God wrong? There are many religious traditions out there and they give us many ways to worship God. What is the one connection between them all? Us. Its the idea that all of us have been hard wired to draw close together during times of trouble and support each other. Animals in the wild do the same on a very basic level but the emotional traumas that we experience and the myriad ways that we have for "plugging in" to find healing prove that there is something special about humanity. Whether its a song, a prayer, a quiet moment, a light, or someone to hold your hand, each of these provide us with a medium that fills us with hope and strength to overcome the obstacles in our path. The funny thing is that that is the same message that the myriad religious traditions try to teach us. That we don't live for ourselves alone. That we are to love each other. That we are to show compassion towards the suffering and share in each other's joys. That we are to reflect within ourselves on this connection that we all have with each other and with nature. The episode of Glee was perfect because it conveyed that message to a "T". At the end of the episode, they sang "What if God Was One of Us" by Alanis Morriset. The song made me immediately think, what if God were All of us? What if God where what drives us together in the darkness and the pain and helps us to see the joy that is around us? What if God is that feeling you get inside when you're surrounded by the beauty of nature? The warmth of friends and family? What if God is that feeling that you get when you simply can't give any more of yourself and instead of desperation you find stillness and solace? What if God were ALL these things?
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Music, Finally REAL Music!
There's a lot to be said about our culture based on the music that we are putting out. From Lady Gaga to Eminem, from Linkin Park to Kings of Leon, a lot of what we're hearing is auto-tuned voices. Voices that are warped, changed, unnatural, and increasingly hostile. You hear about love, understanding, peace, and hope only occasionally interspersed between sex and violence. Today I bought Wake Up!, a new collabo between John Legend, a singer / songwriter with a heavy gospel background, and the Legendary Roots Crew, a hip-hop band that stays true to the genre's jazz and blues traditions. The voices and sounds are natural and highly reminiscent of the soulful ballads that emerged out of the 1950s and 60s. The themes are centered on change, hope, love, humanity, and all the things that make life hard for people trying to live out that "Humanity". It is truly inspirational without being overtly religious, it speaks to the real experiences of many people living in "Hard Times", hoping that "Our Generation" will "Wake Up Everybody" from the stupor and trance of the political lap dance that seems to have enveloped everyone around us. It speaks to the soul about the heart in a time when both are increasingly cast aside, ripped from us like the tide that washes trash up on our shores. I highly recommend it and I truly hope this is the beginning of a trend that will bring REAL MUSIC back to our radios and hearts.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
6 Components of a World Changing Church
I don't think I need to stress the importance of religion in society, but I will anyway. Religion can and has inspired both a great amount of good and a great amount of evil in the world. The way that churches relate to the world is therefore extremely important. As I was reading Communion Ecclesiology by Dennis Doyle, I stumbled upon these six factors that would make for a truly world changing Catholic Church.
1. A doctrinal factor that emphasizes the priority of the Church universal and the importance of certain visible church structures.
2. A Rhanerian factor that emphasizes the sacramentality of the world and the communion with God that exists within all humankind.
3. A Balthasarian factor that emphasizes the uniqueness of the Christian revelation and its aesthetic character.
4. A liberation factor that emphasizes an option for the poor and the political implications of communion.
5. A contextual factor that emphasizes gender, ethnicity, and social location as the context for appreciating relationality.
6. A reforming factor that emphasizes the need for Roman Catholics to challenge radically their own ecclesiological presuppositions in the interest of ecumenical progress.
Doyle then offers two frameworks that we can use to include the above 6 factors into the church:
A. The idea that to be Catholic is to be inclusive. "Both Johann Adam Mohler and Henri de Lubac find such an understanding of catholicity in the patristic scholars. They argue that the errors of the early heretics were not simply falsehoods, but partial truths. The heretics were often condemned not for what they affirmed but for what they denied. To be inclusive here does not mean that no one can ever be excluded; rather, it means, paradoxically, that the only reason to exclude someone would ultimately be for their own lack of inclusivity. The intent is not to marginalize people or views, but simply to acknowledge that certain positions themselves marginalize what should be central. The Catholic impulse is to favor the "both / and" over the "either / or." It is to be open to the truth whereever it may be found. It is to opt for unity, sometimes at the cost of other goods."
B. The sacramentality of the Church. "Drawing upon several twentieth-century thinkers such as Henri de Lubac, Karl Rahner, Edward Schillebeeckx, and Bernard Cooke, I use sacramentality to refer to an awareness of the presence and activity of God simultaneously both in the sacraments and in the context of everyday life. I find this principle expressed in a distinction that Thomas Aquinas made in his Summa Theologiae. There are two kinds of sacraments: those whose grace represents something incommensurable with what human beings can achieve in their own lives, and those whose grace is more in proportion with what human beings are naturally inclined to achieve on their own. As examples of the first type, Aquinas mentions baptism, confirmatino, and anointing of the sick. For the second type, he mentions matrimony and reconciliation. The first type has as their matter (material cause) external bodily substances such as water and oil. The second type have as their matter perceptible human actions, such as expression of commitment or of repentance. This distinction brings out a crucial point: there is a sense in which sacramentality offers to the world that which the world lacks; and there is a sense in which sacramentality blesses and enhances what the world, through God's grace, already has."
Which factors do you feel are missing in your church? Which do you think you can help your church move towards? How can you use the two frameworks to do so?
1. A doctrinal factor that emphasizes the priority of the Church universal and the importance of certain visible church structures.
2. A Rhanerian factor that emphasizes the sacramentality of the world and the communion with God that exists within all humankind.
3. A Balthasarian factor that emphasizes the uniqueness of the Christian revelation and its aesthetic character.
4. A liberation factor that emphasizes an option for the poor and the political implications of communion.
5. A contextual factor that emphasizes gender, ethnicity, and social location as the context for appreciating relationality.
6. A reforming factor that emphasizes the need for Roman Catholics to challenge radically their own ecclesiological presuppositions in the interest of ecumenical progress.
Doyle then offers two frameworks that we can use to include the above 6 factors into the church:
A. The idea that to be Catholic is to be inclusive. "Both Johann Adam Mohler and Henri de Lubac find such an understanding of catholicity in the patristic scholars. They argue that the errors of the early heretics were not simply falsehoods, but partial truths. The heretics were often condemned not for what they affirmed but for what they denied. To be inclusive here does not mean that no one can ever be excluded; rather, it means, paradoxically, that the only reason to exclude someone would ultimately be for their own lack of inclusivity. The intent is not to marginalize people or views, but simply to acknowledge that certain positions themselves marginalize what should be central. The Catholic impulse is to favor the "both / and" over the "either / or." It is to be open to the truth whereever it may be found. It is to opt for unity, sometimes at the cost of other goods."
B. The sacramentality of the Church. "Drawing upon several twentieth-century thinkers such as Henri de Lubac, Karl Rahner, Edward Schillebeeckx, and Bernard Cooke, I use sacramentality to refer to an awareness of the presence and activity of God simultaneously both in the sacraments and in the context of everyday life. I find this principle expressed in a distinction that Thomas Aquinas made in his Summa Theologiae. There are two kinds of sacraments: those whose grace represents something incommensurable with what human beings can achieve in their own lives, and those whose grace is more in proportion with what human beings are naturally inclined to achieve on their own. As examples of the first type, Aquinas mentions baptism, confirmatino, and anointing of the sick. For the second type, he mentions matrimony and reconciliation. The first type has as their matter (material cause) external bodily substances such as water and oil. The second type have as their matter perceptible human actions, such as expression of commitment or of repentance. This distinction brings out a crucial point: there is a sense in which sacramentality offers to the world that which the world lacks; and there is a sense in which sacramentality blesses and enhances what the world, through God's grace, already has."
Which factors do you feel are missing in your church? Which do you think you can help your church move towards? How can you use the two frameworks to do so?
It's All About Security, Food Security
http://www.oxfam.org/en/en/emergencies/west-africa-food-crisis/niger-front-lines-war-against-hunger
Many times, people wonder about the effects of environmental degradation in the here and now. We are told that we have to safeguard the environment for our children and the emphasis is placed so much on the future that we often don't see what happens in the present. Case in point: Niger. As a result of sever drought, the grass shoots that normally feed hundreds of thousands of animals in the plains were drastically delayed. The farmers looked out and didn't see any problem, they believed there would be enough for their animals to survive. And there would have been, if animals from neighboring zones hadn't traveled hundreds of miles in their own search for food. Many of the farming cattle died and as a result, the hunger gap that usually begins in June began in April. Now, half of all Nigerians are starving. Luckily, Oxfam implemented a two stage program that subsidized grain and millet for the animals and de-stocked the farmers of their dead animals at an above market price. The result has made an impact in many communities, but it will still take months for Nigerians to recover. The lesson? Environmental degradation is not constrained to borders and unless we are taught to understand what needs to be done BEFORE it needs to be done, countless will continue to suffer. Thankfully, organizations like Oxfam are out there to lend a hand. Click on the link above to learn more about the food crisis in Nigeria and countless other Oxfam initiatives.
Many times, people wonder about the effects of environmental degradation in the here and now. We are told that we have to safeguard the environment for our children and the emphasis is placed so much on the future that we often don't see what happens in the present. Case in point: Niger. As a result of sever drought, the grass shoots that normally feed hundreds of thousands of animals in the plains were drastically delayed. The farmers looked out and didn't see any problem, they believed there would be enough for their animals to survive. And there would have been, if animals from neighboring zones hadn't traveled hundreds of miles in their own search for food. Many of the farming cattle died and as a result, the hunger gap that usually begins in June began in April. Now, half of all Nigerians are starving. Luckily, Oxfam implemented a two stage program that subsidized grain and millet for the animals and de-stocked the farmers of their dead animals at an above market price. The result has made an impact in many communities, but it will still take months for Nigerians to recover. The lesson? Environmental degradation is not constrained to borders and unless we are taught to understand what needs to be done BEFORE it needs to be done, countless will continue to suffer. Thankfully, organizations like Oxfam are out there to lend a hand. Click on the link above to learn more about the food crisis in Nigeria and countless other Oxfam initiatives.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Score One for Haiti
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/38347904/ns/sports-soccer//
After this year's World Cup, many of the US players held high hope that their success, though limited, would help to guide this country toward the one sport that is truly international. It appears as if that may finally be happening. The LA Galaxy, arguable the best American soccer team, funded a group of 14 and 15 year old Haitian soccer players on a trip to Minnesota to play in the largest youth soccer championship in the US. During a time of crisis (and to use that word for Haiti is an understatement) it is necessary to find something that will put a smile on your face because the psychological turmoil of it all can render you completely helpless. Finding an outlet to yet yourself be you, to smile and play and laugh and put all of the horrors aside for a while, is not escapism. It is a way to recharge, refocus, and take a nice deep breath before plunging in to it all over again. For those Haitian youths, it was the first time that they could be without hunger and experience a new world that they may never have had the chance to see. God only knows what seeds are being planted in their hearts to help change their own country in the future.
After this year's World Cup, many of the US players held high hope that their success, though limited, would help to guide this country toward the one sport that is truly international. It appears as if that may finally be happening. The LA Galaxy, arguable the best American soccer team, funded a group of 14 and 15 year old Haitian soccer players on a trip to Minnesota to play in the largest youth soccer championship in the US. During a time of crisis (and to use that word for Haiti is an understatement) it is necessary to find something that will put a smile on your face because the psychological turmoil of it all can render you completely helpless. Finding an outlet to yet yourself be you, to smile and play and laugh and put all of the horrors aside for a while, is not escapism. It is a way to recharge, refocus, and take a nice deep breath before plunging in to it all over again. For those Haitian youths, it was the first time that they could be without hunger and experience a new world that they may never have had the chance to see. God only knows what seeds are being planted in their hearts to help change their own country in the future.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Education: Apparently, money ISN'T everything
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/09/13/collegeboard
This is a great article on the percentage of college graduates who are involved in their communities.
The report, a follow-up to the original 2004 publication that included many of the same indicators, uses data from the Department of Education, the U.S. Census Bureau and surveys by other higher education groups. One of its main assertions (also backed by plenty of data): College graduates are more engaged citizens and make healthier decisions than those who don't earn a diploma. Thus, the report argues, higher education has a high rate of return for society. A more educated work force means greater tax revenue and a stronger democracy.
It's just too bad that only 1% of the world has a college degree.
This is a great article on the percentage of college graduates who are involved in their communities.
The report, a follow-up to the original 2004 publication that included many of the same indicators, uses data from the Department of Education, the U.S. Census Bureau and surveys by other higher education groups. One of its main assertions (also backed by plenty of data): College graduates are more engaged citizens and make healthier decisions than those who don't earn a diploma. Thus, the report argues, higher education has a high rate of return for society. A more educated work force means greater tax revenue and a stronger democracy.
It's just too bad that only 1% of the world has a college degree.
Reader's Corner: Soul of a Citizen
Every now and then I come across a book that's so inspiring that I can't put it down, and I can't stop recommending it. Soul of a Citizen is one of those books. Its filled with stories and strategies on how to get involved in your local community and inspire others to work for meaningful change. If you've ever wondered whether one person could make a difference, Paul Loeb assures you that the answer is yes. I'm using it with the college freshmen orientation class I'm teaching and I really think that it's going to inspire a lot of positive responses. If you're an educator, pair this book with some community service and reflection and suddenly, your students will begin to learn that change IS possible.
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