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2/14/13, Spong: The Birth of Jesus, Part IX: Was There Scandal at the Manger?
by Ellie Stock 14 Feb '13

14 Feb '13

HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR The Birth of Jesus, Part IX Was There Scandal at the Manger? The prologue to Mathew’s gospel, which also serves to introduce the story of Jesus’ miraculous birth, is now complete. Matthew writing as he does to the members of a traditional Jewish community, who were also the followers of Jesus, has grounded the life of Jesus deeply into Jewish history. Jesus is the son of Abraham, the heir of King David, in a line produced by those who had lived the various stages of Jewish life. The Jews were a people who had been born free in the persons of the great patriarchs, driven by famine into the land of Egypt where they descended into slavery, broke free once more in the Exodus, wandered through the wilderness reclaiming what they believed was their promised land, established a lasting monarchy, were torn by secession and civil wars, defeated in battle at the hands of the Babylonians and exiled to a foreign land where they believed the songs of Zion could never be sung again. Then, years later, they were finally allowed to return to their homeland, rebuild their ruins, including their holy city of Jerusalem, and even revive their ancient calling to be “a blessing to the nations of the world.” These were the people who produced Jesus, Matthew was saying. It was in this life of Jesus that Matthew believed was to be vested “the hope of the Jews.” In his stage-setting genealogy, however, Matthew had also begun to respond to the critics of Jesus, who at this time were identified primarily with the Orthodox party of the Jewish world. What was the content of their attack on Jesus? I think we find hints of that in various places in the New Testament to which I will turn when we have stitched together the content of this criticism. Then I believe we will discover Matthew’s motive for developing the story of Jesus’ origins in the way that he did. Most especially we will be able to understand just why Matthew included in his genealogy the references to those I have called the “shady ladies,” which suggests that the line that produced Jesus also flowed through incest, prostitution, seduction and adultery. Religion has always been in the business of control. That is why those who cannot abide by its rules face ostracism and excommunication. The religious lines of power are clear. God reveals the divine law to the religious leaders. These religious leaders then claim for themselves alone the power to interpret and to enforce those rules. This means that to disobey the rules is not just to disobey the religious leaders, but it is also to disobey the God who has chosen and empowered these leaders. A religious troublemaker is, therefore, the most direct threat to ecclesiastical power. Religious reformers and religious visionaries are thus thought of as dangerous people. They challenge the security around which the religious community is organized. That is why reformers are banished, tortured and executed, sometimes by being burned at the stake. Prior to this “final” solution, visionaries are frequently attacked personally, becoming the victims of character assassination. One of the ways this character assassination was accomplished in Jewish society in the first century was to attack the reformer or the visionary’s legitimacy. A base-born person might be prone, they assumed, to struggle against the religious rules that defined him or her as untrustworthy. That is why there is so much discussion in the gospel tradition about the “origins’ of Jesus. He was not thought of by the religious hierarchy as a legitimate religious leader. He came from Galilee! Search the scriptures; nowhere will you find a hint that a messiah would rise from Galilee. He hailed from the town of Nazareth. That was “on the wrong side of the tracks.” Nothing good could come out of Nazareth. Where did this man get his knowledge, his power? We know his family, his mother, his brothers and his sisters. Echoes of his inadequate origins are found throughout the gospel tradition. Some even suggested that he might be possessed by demons! “By the power of Beelzebub, he casts out demons,” is the way they put it. Mark, the earliest gospel to be written, makes these charges overt. In chapter three of that first gospel, in which there is no birth story, the family of Jesus is portrayed as becoming alarmed at the reputation that Jesus was accumulating. Believing him to be “beside himself,” that is, out of his mind, his mother and his brothers actually come to take him away. They are rebuked by Jesus who announces that his real family, his real mother and siblings are not his birth and blood relatives, but those who hear the word of God and do it. By the time one arrives at chapter six of Mark, these charges have finally been identified with Jesus’ questionable paternity. A member of the crowd shouts, “Is not this the carpenter?” Note that Joseph has never been mentioned. Jesus is the carpenter in the first gospel to be written. This nameless voice in the crowd then goes on with this identification process and says, “Is not this the son of Mary, the mother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon and are not his sisters here with us?” Then Mark says: “They took offense at him.” Three things must be noted here. First, to call an adult Jewish male the son of his mother was a deliberate insult. It carries with it the implication that his paternity is unknown, that his father is compromised, missing or not identified. It is a charge of being illegitimate. The second thing is that this is the only time that the mother of Jesus is identified by the name “Mary” in any Christian writing before the ninth decade. The final thing to note is that in this, the earliest record we have about the family of Jesus, no father, earthly or otherwise, is mentioned. Joseph does not enter the Christian story until we get to Matthew in the ninth decade and when he is introduced, his role is to name the child and thus to legitimize him. Another hint of Jesus’ questionable paternity is found in the Song of Mary, called “The Magnificat,” recorded only by Luke. In that song, God is said “to have regarded the low estate of his handmaiden” and to have turned her to a state of blessedness. God exalted her, who was of “low degree.” There was no status of lower degree or lower estate in first century Jewish society than an unmarried woman expecting a child. A third scriptural hint that rumors were abroad about Jesus’ questionable paternity is found in the Fourth Gospel in which, once again, the subject is the inadequate origins of Jesus that disqualify him from being able to make the messianic claim that was clearly being made for him. In this passage someone in the crowd shouts at Jesus, “We were not born of fornication.” (John 8:41). The clear presumption of this speaker is that Jesus was. So with Jesus’ origins under attack, with innuendos abroad that he was base-born, a bastard, if you will, and that this is what actually caused him to be a troublemaker, Matthew decides to come to his defense. He will argue that far from being base-born, his life was born holy. God is his father. So, borrowing a popular Mediterranean tradition, which attributed personal greatness to divine origins and to virgin births, Matthew created the narrative of Jesus’ miraculous birth. He then searched the scriptures to find a prophetic text that might point in this direction. He found a verse in Isaiah (7:14). It did not fit but, like many fundamentalists do today, Matthew edited it to make it fit. The text literally said in Hebrew, a young woman is with child. Translated into Greek, the Hebrew word for woman, “almah,” was rendered “parthenos,” in which there is a connotation of virginity, but the phrase “a virgin is with child” is a bit of an oxymoron, so Matthew altered the verse to make it read: “a virgin will conceive.” On the basis of this forced and incorrect rendition of this text, Matthew built the first story of the virgin birth of Jesus to appear in Christian history. The text in Isaiah actually grew out of a time in the 8th century BCE when the city of Jerusalem was under siege by the combined armies of Syria and the Northern Kingdom. The prophet Isaiah wanted to provide a sign to assure Judah’s King Ahaz that Jerusalem would not fall to these enemies and that the Jewish nation would go on. His reference was to the current pregnancy of a woman in the royal family, probably the daughter in law of King Ahaz. The birth of her royal child would be a sign that the nation would endure and that the House of David would not be destroyed. His re-assuring words were: “A woman is with child.” The context makes it obvious that this verse did not apply to someone who would be born 750 years later! Matthew, as a follower of Jesus, was convinced of the holiness of Jesus’ life and of the reality of his experience that God was in and with Jesus in a deep and dramatic way. So he crafted the virgin birth story to support that thesis. Matthew, however, must have known that his reasoning was weak. He was enough of a student of the Hebrew Scriptures to know that the text he had chosen would not bear the weight he had assigned to it. So, in the prologue, he covered his other bases. This life is holy. This life is of God. This life is God’s promised messiah, but if you are not persuaded by my argument from scripture, I want you to know that whatever were the circumstances surrounding his birth, God is capable of bringing holiness through any set of human compromises. Out of a line that contained incest, prostitution, seduction and adultery, this holy life of God has emerged. It is thus a powerful story. Matthew will continue to wrap the Jewish scriptures around Jesus for the rest of his birth narrative. As he does so, the history of the Jewish people and the characters out of that ancient Jewish story re-emerge to bear their witness. Those who possess Jewish eyes will be able to see them. Among these characters will be Moses, the Pharaoh, Joseph the patriarch, Rachel, Isaiah, the Queen of Sheba, Balaam, Balak, Jesse, David, Hosea, Elijah and Joshua. Matthew’s gospel in general, but the birth narrative in particular, must be read through a Jewish lens. To these other texts and biblical characters, we will turn when this series resumes. ~John Shelby Spong **Please read the important announcement below regarding last weeks Q and A. Read the essay online here. Question & Answer Judith Crichton from Janeville, New Brunswick, Canada, writes: Question: I have just finished reading your latest book, Eternal Life: A New Vision and was especially struck by your chapter on mysticism. I am in the process of writing a doctoral thesis on an early 17th century mystic, a founding mother of French Canada. As a business executive now retired, and someone long disillusioned with the Anglican liturgy and credo of my upbringing, I had come to my own conclusions with regard to the unitary experience of the mystical tradition, which my subject clearly felt and the scientific understanding of the unity of all things (of which we are aware in our time, but she was not in hers). In the course of my life, I have learned to have no fear of death although I have experienced it at close hand. I have learned to regard Jesus as a very gifted man, related to the universe as you and I are. I have experienced the sometimes confusing, but very real gift of second sight, of clairvoyance, of knowledge beyond our known senses that we humans have always had, and, in our culture, usually feared. The best I can do, I have thought, is to write my experiences and my own spiritual journey for my children and grandchildren, if it might be of help in their own questing. Now I will enthusiastically join you and others in your movement. How often I have looked at the papal entourage of my relative’s religions and found them to be absurd and so self-serving in their manners and preaching, like the emperor who has no clothes. With regard to religion, I was raised in the Anglican Church by church-going parents in Toronto, yet in their very old age, both my parents came to their own separate conclusions, unable to believe in the preachings of the church, and both found peace and dignity in an enormous love for life in all its unconceivable mysteries and in generosity of spirit. Neither needed to believe in an afterlife so great was their love of this life with all it revealed in the course of the century they both lived from beginning to end. You can imagine my delight to hear you in a Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) radio interview recently and, in reading your book, to understand how my life’s experiences have led me to similar conclusions to your own. Your courage to write, which I know is not courage but duty, makes the journey so much less lonely. I believe your work is critical and would like to help. My question as a newcomer to your movement is how you see the church, or any Christian community, progressing into a form, in a practical way, that will call people to participate meaningfully. I simply cannot bring myself to attend a church of any denomination that continues to sing hymns of the Father from the 18th century and reads lessons from the Bible that are interpreted in a way that has no relation whatsoever to the realities of my life. Not to mention the Apostles’ or the Nicene Creeds, which I cannot say because I do not believe them. My children have not been raised in the Church deliberately. One is married to a non-practicing, but theoretical Jew; another is married to a devout atheist; the third is an artist happily conjoined with another artist, both non-theistic and non-religious. All of them are loving, caring and productive people. Two of the three couples have beautiful children. But neither they nor I have a community of like-minded people with whom to celebrate life....yet they do so in creating their own traditions and celebrations around the important events of their lives. The Jewish element remains slightly exclusionary with male members who wear identifying clothing or “beanies” and speak with an identifying “Jewish” lingo and cadence. While others remain fixed in their religious traditions, the label “Christian” in a progressive movement like yours is bothersome to me as there must be a way to recognize the same conclusions members of other “faiths” are no doubt coming to. It is extremely difficult for believers to let go of their emotional lock hold on outdated beliefs and traditions, as you say. Several close friends in the scientific community are rote members of their congregations, whether Catholic or Christian Jew, and as doctors live what appears to be almost a neurotic belief, fanned and fostered by their respective clergy...no doubt with financial self-interest a factor. You are a pleasure to read and follow. I wish you every success and hope to join in your movement in a meaningful way. Answer: Dear Judith, Thank you for your open and honest letter. I am delighted that you have found guidance for your family from some things I have written. You ask how can we move from where we are into where we want to be and you express your concern that even the use of the term Christian is a problem given the baggage which that word now carries. My response is that we have to start where we are. As I look at the history of religion, I observe that new religious insights always and only emerge out of the old traditions as they begin to die. It is not by pitching the old insights out but by journeying deeply through them into new visions that we are able to change religion’s direction. The creeds were 3rd and 4th century love songs that people composed to sing to their understanding of God. We do not have to literalize their words to perceive their meaning or their intention to join in the singing of their creedal song. I think religion in general and Christianity in particular must always be evolving. Forcing the evolution is the dialogue between yesterday’s words and today’s knowledge. The sin of Christianity is that any of us ever claimed that we had somehow captured eternal truth in the forms we had created. Christianity is the pathway I walk into the mystery of God, but I do not think for a moment that God is a Christian! No human religious system can ever capture the truth and essence of God. So I continue my journey inside the Christ path and then beyond the Christianity that I both know and treasure and in which I was raised. I invite you to join me in the journey, bringing with you all the challenges you have to the forms of yesterday. Thank you for writing, John Shelby Spong Announcements To my readers around the world but especially to my Australian Readers, Last week in the Question and Answer part of this column I responded to a letter from John Riingen from San Diego in which he asked me to comment on a statement that he said had been issued by the Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard. I proceeded to do so. I am sure that my letter writer had no idea that it was a hoax. It now appears that Ms. Gillard never said those things and indeed that this particular quotation has floated on the Internet for some time and has been attributed to at least three Australian Prime Ministers. The original author appears, actually, to have been an American. We do fact checks on every column, but have never extended that discipline to the letters of those who write to this column. In the future before I use any letter that quotes another person directly I will verify that quotation or not use that letter. I thank all of you who wrote to make me aware of this mistake (and there were many!!) and I apologize to the Prime Minister and to the people of Australia in particular. Australia has been one of my favorite countries in the world to visit. We have been to that wondrous country nine times. I would never knowingly offend my many Australian friends in any manner. I hope this letter will help to put this quotation in the dustbins of history where it surely belongs. ~John Shelby Spong Any questions or concerns, please contact us at support(a)johnshelbyspong.com or 503-236-3545. Copyright © 2013 ProgressiveChristianity.org, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you have a membership at our website. Our mailing address is: ProgressiveChristianity.org 3530 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Unit 1 Portland, OR 97214 Add us to your address book

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Update on Dan Tuecke
by Lynda Cock 14 Feb '13

14 Feb '13

Pat asked that I post this on the list serves. Dan continues to need our care and support. Hope he'll get to ride his new bicycle soon. Lynda _____ From: Patricia Tuecke [mailto:ptuecke@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2013 7:00 PM To: 'Lynda Cock' Subject: RE: Just checkin' on you Dear Lynda, Thanks for sending the good energy. We need it. We can barely get over one episode before another occurs. I'm way late in sending an update message for you to put on the Dialogue. I don't know if Lee has continued his messages. I deeply appreciate your messages and care. Greetings to John. Pat Please post on Dialogue/OE: Dearly loved friends, family, and colleagues, This message is rather detailed and lengthy. So warned, you can delete it or go to your next message. After Dan's back surgery in Oct he had 6 weeks of rehab physical therapy. He felt good and was anxious to get back on his new bike. He was home 2 days and went back to ER on Dec.6 with nausea, light headedness & chest pain. He was admitted with a serious infection which turned out to be his gallbladder and needed to have it removed. It took six days to get his blood thick so he could have surgery. During that time he was on IV but no food or water. Surgery was postponed 3 times until it was safe to operate. The surgeon told me the gallbladder was gangrenous. Then it took several days to get the blood thin again. After 20 days in hospital he made it home on Dec. 21. However, he had lost all the strength he had recovered after his back surgery rehab in Oct/Nov. We cancelled our long-planned Christmas visit with son Eric, Tina and our two grand-daughters, Katy & Grace in Portland OR. We were so disappointed, then so excited when they packed up all their gifts & such and drove to Reno for our Christmas. We had a wonderful visit. On Jan.19 Dan had severe pain on his right side; went to ER and was admitted with a blood clot/hematoma in the same spot of a previous one. They took him off blood thinner to let the hematoma heal. He had another CT scan Friday to see what's going on inside. He was discharged home on Jan 23 - his mother's 95th birthday. He was to stay off blood thinner for a week or so. He walks very slowly with two canes and has even driven a couple of times. Then, (before I finished this letter), another trip to ER on Feb. 5. This time with hugely swollen legs. He was admitted and spent 4 days in hospital a blood clot in both legs. Docs trying to figure out what makes his body produce clots so often. I think they didn't find the answer but put him on another blood thinner medicine which makes him a bit nauseous. He gets weaker after each episode from such prolonged stay in bed. His goal is to get strong enough to ride his new Trike (a 3 wheeled recumbent bike we bought in September see attachment.) This exercise will help with moving his blood back up from his legs . So goes the saga.. This may be the new normal. So he will live between blood clots and hematomas, a real rock and a hard place. Our spirits are good, at least not low. We are so grateful for Medicare and our ARRP supplemental insurance. I shudder to think what we'd do if we didn't have that. And also the support from this community of friends and colleagues. Dan was amazed at the outpouring of prayers and healing thoughts that come after his back surgery in October. And they do help. Many of you asked for updates then. With all the above going on, I haven't done that until now. If you're so inclined, a phone call would be great. And I take strength from all the care & concern about how I'm doing, too. Pat Tuecke

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Al Gore | We're in Trouble--New Book: The Future: Six Indicators of Global Change
by Ellie Stock 12 Feb '13

12 Feb '13

Thought some might be interested... A segment on Al Gore speaking about his new book: The Future: Six Indicators of Global Change. We heard him speak in St. Louis Saturday night and are now reading his book. Ellie Reader Supported News | 10 February 13 PM It's Live on the HomePage Now: Reader Supported News Al Gore | We're in Trouble Al Gore, Salon Gore writes: "Our first priority should be to restore our ability to communicate clearly and candidly with one another in a broadly accessible forum about the difficult choices we have to make." READ MORE

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Fwd: Mom/Helen's final days
by Carol Crow 11 Feb '13

11 Feb '13

Dear Friends, I am sending this on behalf of the Newkirk family. The memorial service for Helen was originally thought to be on Thursday afternoon, but is now scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. If you would like to be a part of the service electronically, please contact Linda or Patricia (Patricia(a)songaia.com) and they will give you instructions. In caring community, Carol > >> >> >> >> On Feb 10, 2013, at 8:36 AM, ljknutsen(a)gmail.com wrote: >> >>> Hello everyone, >>> >>> As most of you are aware, Mom died early Saturday morning, and it >>> was peaceful and quick. She was surrounded by all of us here, >>> helping her make the leap. If you did not know, Mom has fought >>> breast cancer since 1999, and was in remission until 2006. She >>> again fought it successfully for another 5 years, but in 2011 it >>> metastasized to the bones. She had a good run for about a year, >>> and then last fall the pain began to increase significantly. She >>> underwent radiation in November and found the recovery extremely >>> difficult. In early January she enrolled in Hospice, and decided >>> against any further tests or treatments. >>> >>> Early last week it became very clear she was declining rapidly, so >>> we called in many family to her surprise and delight. We had 5 >>> days of chaos and joy with so many people here, including cousins, >>> grandkids, great-grandkids, and her oldest and dearest friend, >>> Electa. Though Jim couldn't make it from Serbia, he was with us on >>> Skype at least once a day, as was Janie, Mom's sister. Most people >>> left on Tuesday, except for Patricia and Lisa - Dave had to go >>> back to San Diego. >>> >>> So she had said her goodbyes, and even before people left on >>> Tuesday her decline became more rapid. Except for a few periods of >>> discomfort, she seemed not to be in pain. The whole Hospice team >>> came to meet with us on Thursday, and the nurse again Friday night >>> to assist us with her pain meds; she helped us through her final >>> passing. Our house has again been filled with loved ones all day >>> since Saturday, and will be again today. >>> >>> We are planning for a memorial on Wednesday afternoon at her >>> church, and we are working on a way for her far-flung friends and >>> loved ones to attend the memorial via your computers. We will send >>> more info later. >>> >>> She has a Facebook page we are continuing to update - please go >>> check it out (Helen E. Newkirk) - you will recognize her photo. >>> Thank you to all of you who have so generously shared memories and >>> stories...please keep them coming and feel free to put them on >>> Facebook. We will continue to accept her Facebook Friend requests. >>> >>> Much love, >>> Linda, Patricia, Jim, Dave, & Lisa >>> >>> >>> >>> >> >

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Helen Newkirk
by Carol Crow 07 Feb '13

07 Feb '13

Dear Friends, I have been asked by Patricia to forward this letter from her sister, Linda Knutsen. Helen lives with Linda and Lester in Virginia, (DC area) and is nearing the end of her life. They would love to hear stories from any of you who have lived with Helen and Bill - please send them to ljknutsen(a)gmail.com. The family will read them to Helen and share with each other. Patricia leaves this afternoon to share these last days with the family. By evening Lisa will also have arrived. Dave and girls are already there and Jim will not be able to come from Serbia but was here last summer. Other extended family are there and arriving. Attached is a letter Linda sent out earlier this week. > Subject: Update on Mom/Helen - Feb 1, 2013 > Reply-To: ljknutsen(a)gmail.com > > Hello everyone, > > I am sorry that I haven't kept you all in the loop more frequently > on how Mom is doing...it has been a good, but challenging month. > > As anticipated, Hospice has been just simply wonderful, and has made > this last few weeks so much more manageable than I could have > imagined. While Mom continued for most of January to make her way, > usually on her own, out into the living room into her recliner to > watch her favorite shows, record her life stories, read, or just > hang out, her strength steadily declined. Thankfully, we have gotten > her pain well under control, and she claims to have little to none. > Starting last Saturday for 4 nights she 'traveled' all night long, > talking constantly for most of 7 hours (!) with family members and > some strangers in all corners of the globe. These episodes were > mostly typical, illogical dreams with memories woven in, and were > often quite funny! I have many quotes from those nights that I have > shared with my siblings, and we have laughed and laughed! My > favorites are: > > "Oh, this is just terrible...my tacos are FREEZING!" ...and... > "LINDA, JUST TELL ME WHAT THE PLAN IS!" (yes, very loudly!) > > We have lots of family help here now to be with her. She has slept > well for the past two nights with little dream-talking, and her > spirits are excellent. Her humor and her intellect are most > definitely intact! But she can no longer bear any weight, and sleeps > most of the time. She slept nearly 15 hours yesterday after her 4 > days of 'traveling' and even then was still quite tired. But today > she was quite responsive and interactive, though for very short > periods between naps. > > She is ready to 'go home' and quite at peace with the most > **amazing** life she has had, and she has SO enjoyed hearing from > all of you, her ***MOST*** amazing hoard of much-loved, far-flung, > wild and wonderful friends and family. > > Many of these I mention are gathering here as I type to wish her yet > another blessed journey, and she will definitely be thinking of all > of you, near and far. (As I write this I realize that neither she > nor I have checked her email for maybe a week or more, so I will do > that now and share with her all your loving communications.) > > Love and peace, > Linda > > Thank you for sharing in this special time in the Newkirk family.In caring community, Carol Crow Patricia's Housemate in Bothell, WA

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Help reduce gun violence
by Wayne Ellsworth 07 Feb '13

07 Feb '13

Hey -- Yesterday, President Obama told the American people that it's time to take some basic commonsense steps to reduce gun violence. I signed a petition telling Congress to take the next step and act swiftly to pass legislation. Will you join me? You can sign the petition and learn more here: http://my.democrats.org/gun-safety-ems Thanks.

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2/07/13, Spong: Gun Control, Immigration and Senator Hagel: The Manifestations of Cultural Paranoia in our Current Political Debate
by Ellie Stock 07 Feb '13

07 Feb '13

HOMEPAGE MY PROFILE ESSAY ARCHIVE MESSAGE BOARDS CALENDAR Gun Control, Immigration and Senator Hagel: The Manifestations of Cultural Paranoia in our Current Political Debate There are times when listening to the political debate in this country that I am absolutely astonished. Many of the participants in the current struggles regarding the proposed limitation on assault weapons, or making background checks for gun ownership universal, appear to be responding to a world that I do not believe exists. The debate on a proposed immigration bill seems to me to reveal little more than massive xenophobia. The Senate hearings on the confirmation of Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of Defense seem to want to rewrite the history of the second Iraq war. Am I the only one who is out of touch with reality or is something else operating in this nation, but below the level of consciousness? Do people, for example, really believe that they need military assault guns that will fire 100 bullets without reloading to protect themselves from the Federal Government? Did the framers of the second amendment really believe that the constitution guarantees to individuals the right to possess a military arsenal sufficient to defend our homes against a frontal assault by a battalion of armed criminals? Can a nation made up of immigrants really close its doors to others of the world’s “huddled masses, who yearn to be free” and who otherwise qualify? In the Hagel debate have our leaders, including Senator John McCain, forgotten that the reason we were told the Iraq war was necessary did not exist or that the “surge” was required not to win that war, but to pacify a country that was about to fall into a religious civil war between the Sunnis and the Shia? Political debate is certainly a legitimate and a vital part of our democracy, but does it not have to be connected with reality to be effective? Let me examine briefly the evidence that disturbs me. The United States is a far more violent society than any of the developed nations of the Western world. Our murder rate is off the charts when compared with Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Scandinavia or Germany. From where in our national character does this killing violence emerge? The mass killings that have occurred recently in schools, theaters, worshiping communities and even at public political rallies, have become so regular that, while we are still horrified, the fact is that no one is any longer surprised. Many of these episodes appear time after time to be the work of a mentally disturbed person, but we still debate whether background checks should be required for all gun owners and whether mentally ill people or those with criminal records can be ruled out as gun owners. The Newtown, Connecticut slaughter was directed against defenseless women and children. The bodies of the youngest victims in that tragedy were not just killed; they were riddled with as many as eleven bullets each. We are faced as a society with increasing levels of fear. We cannot go to our places of worship, take our children to an elementary school, venture out to a theater, or meet with our congresswoman in a public place without facing the threat of being murdered and yet these realities are not judged to be of sufficient importance to cause us to temper by law the passions of our gun culture. The representatives of the National Rifle Association want to counter these sources of fear by posting armed guards in public places and by having our children taught by “pistol-packing” teachers in our public schools. They are opposed to universal background checks, because “they won’t work,” that is, no criminal, they say, will submit to a background check. That argument makes as much sense to me as suggesting that since bank robbers will not obey the law we ought to have no laws against robbing banks. Am I missing something? Are assault weapons with magazines that fire 100 bullets needed for any purpose other than mass murder? If we as a nation can ban the civilian possession of napalm, machine guns, bazookas, missile launchers, tanks and nuclear weapons without violating the 2nd Amendment, why can we not ban military assault weapons from individual ownership without that measure constituting “an assault on our second amendment rights?” If one child in one school can be saved by such legislation, is it not worth it? Because in a free society no one will ever be 100% safe, should we do nothing to make some of us safer? Because this argument seems so strange to me I begin to suspect that there must be other agendas operating in this debate, agendas that are hidden from view, perhaps even hidden from those who offer these out of touch arguments. The immigration debate has similar irrationalities connected with it. First please note that this debate focuses primarily on immigration coming from the nations of our Southern hemisphere. I have heard of no one who wants to build a protective wall along the thousands of miles of common boundary that we share with Canada to stop illegal entry. Is our perception of the skin colors of Canadians and Mexicans a factor in our fear? Is this an expression of our unrecognized racism at work? Who are Mexicans? They are the descendants of those we once called “Indians,” the first settlers in the Western hemisphere who appear to have migrated from Siberia some 15,000 to 25,000 years ago. In 1846 we went to war against Mexico and in our victory annexed about half of what was then the nation of Mexico. Our present states of Texas, Nevada, California and Utah, as well as significant parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming were once areas claimed by Mexico. Are we afraid that those we once conquered might through “illegal” migration reclaim their former homeland? We close our eyes to the fact that American businesses and American citizens regularly hire those we call “illegal immigrants” to harvest our crops, to work in our hotels and restaurants, to tend our yards and homes, and always at a pay scale below that required by law in the United States and with no concerns for either the health care of these workers or for their retirement savings. These employers also do not report these worker’s wages for tax purposes. Are we cognizant of the fact that without this source of cheap labor, the price of our food among other things would skyrocket? Is not the real reason that immigration reform cannot get through the Congress of the United States is that powerful vested interests do not want it to pass? So these vested interests fan the xenophobia of the masses and it is this fear that is mined by our politicians to build the political pressure that makes a legal attempt to put an end to this chaotic and illegal system all but impossible. The charges against Senator Hagel, fueled as they are by massive amounts of money from right wing sources, fit into the same picture. When Chuck Hagel was the Republican senator from Nebraska, a conservative mid-western state, he did not “buy” the propaganda campaigns of the war hawks in his party as they attempted to legitimize the war of choice that this nation unleashed against Iraq. These war hawks, most of whom had never served in this nation’s armed forces, justified this war after the fact by asserting that Saddam Hussein was evil and the world was better off without him. That may well be true, but the fact is that this nation has refused to go to war to unseat other evil regimes in North Korea, Syria, Serbia, Cambodia and a variety of countries in Africa. There has to be more to the anti-Hagel campaign than this. Senator Hagel’s apparent “sin” was that he saw through the war hawks’ propaganda and opposed that war even as he exposed the darker side of that chapter in our history and that he was right. Do we need to be reminded yet again that the weapons of mass destruction that were used to justify this war were not there and that the “surge” was required to prevent an Iraqi civil war that none of those who planned this war saw coming? To demand a “yes” or “no” answer to the “success” of “the surge” outside the context in which it was ordered is very revealing. Let me suggest that the real reason for the incredible hostility that marks each of these debates is that they all reflect a change in consciousness that threatens the power of the established order that has held political power in this land from the very beginning of our history. The world is changing. Power is shifting. America is no longer the unchallenged preserve of white males of European ancestry. That fact has raised fears in this nation to new historic levels. That is why the gun debate, the immigration debate and the Senate hearings on Senator Hagel are so irrational. That is also why in the last election the attempt was made to suppress minority votes in those states where a Republican governor and Republican legislators had the power to do so. That is why the discussion of manipulating the Electoral College by changing it from states to congressional districts is being entertained. That is why a campaign to delegitimize the first African-American President to be elected in this country has been systematically conducted, giving rise to such bizarre things as the legitimacy of his birth certificate, the claims that he is really a Muslim, a communist, a fascist, or at least that he is not “one of us.” The fact that he has won twice by significant majorities has only heightened the paranoia. That is why demographic shifts in this nation create such fears. That is why we have witnessed a systematic attack on women, including attempts not only to roll back Roe v. Wade, but also to challenge a woman’s right to comprehensive health care, including contraception. The controlling power of the white males of European background is receding. Women, young people, black voters, Hispanic voters and Asian voters are growing in political power. The gridlock that has tied up the Congress since 2010 grows out of that fact. These efforts will ultimately fail, but they are capable of doing massive harm to this nation and to its economy before that failure is fully recognized. One step forward is to raise these underlying fears to consciousness. That is what this column seeks to do. America needs two functioning political parties. Those parties, however, need to be grounded in reality. At this moment that is not true of both of them. ~John Shelby Spong Read the essay online here. Question & Answer John Riingen, from San Diego, California, writes: Question: I write to request your comment on the words of Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard to the Muslim immigrants in Australia, as the latter want “to live under Islamic Sharia law…” In a more – it seems – conciliatory, but firm assertion, the Prime Minister said, “Most Australians believe in God. This is not some Christian, right wing, political push, but a fact, because Christian men and women, on Christian principles founded this nation and this is clearly documented…..We will accept your beliefs and will not question why. All we ask is that you accept ours and live in harmony and peaceful enjoyment with us. This is our country, our land, and our lifestyle, and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this. But once you are done complaining, whining and griping about our Flag, our Pledge, our Christian beliefs, our way of life, I highly encourage you to take advantage of one other great Australian freedom, “The Right to Leave.” If you aren’t happy here then LEAVE. We didn’t force you to come here. You asked to be here. So accept the country you accepted.” Answer: Dear John, I have been to Australia some nine times and find it a very exciting, young and vibrant nation. I have also studied its politics and watched the Liberal Party (which strangely enough is the Conservative party of Australia) under former Prime Minister John Howard who ruled that country for many years. He was replaced by Kevin Rudd as the first Labor (read Liberal) Party Prime Minister, who then faced a revolt within his party that brought Ms. Gillard to power. One of the issues in all of these governments was immigration, complicated by the relationship of the predominantly European background Australians to the Aborigine population. There is great anxiety in Australia about being “overrun by Asians.” The land mass of Australia is slightly bigger than that of the United States, but the land capable of supporting a large population is limited to the coastal areas. The cities around the coast of Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns and Darwin make up about 90% of the Australian population. Canberra, its capital city was, like Washington, built from the ground up to be the center of the government and Alice Springs, a beautiful oasis literally in the middle of nowhere, are the best known cities that are not on the coast. Australia’s population is about 25 million people. The primary immigrants to Australia today are Pacific Island people, Chinese and South East Asians. The European Australians appear to be worried that as a European island in an Asian sea, they might be overrun and become strangers in their own land. I believe that fear is what motivated Ms. Gillard’s words. Her words, however, make little rational sense since historically the Europeans immigrated to Australia and destroyed the culture of the original inhabitants. Now they want to protect themselves from having someone else do to them what they did to the Aboriginal people. Xenophobia, the fear of those who are different, is a common human trait. Xenophobic fears are expressed in the immigration anxieties that infect all nations. The fact is that nation states are all blending around the edges. In the United States Miami is a majority Hispanic city. The border with Mexico is so porous that the Mexican population in the United States is rising from California to Florida and is rapidly spreading into the nation’s heartland. Asian settlers have changed the face of such west coast cities as San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Portland and Seattle. The north east of the United States is a veritable United Nations. People will always be drawn to the countries that have a higher standard of living. Resisting immigration on the part of those already settled is both inevitable as well as being doomed to failure. Ms. Gillard’s appeal to the Christian religion and her acknowledgement of the Christian nature of Australia is of note. My sense is that Ms. Gillard is known as a totally non-religious woman. She is, however, appealing to some of human beings deepest fears and politicians who mine human fears are dangerous. All of us are immigrants if one goes back far enough in human history. No one should, however, move to another country with the ambition of changing that country to suit the immigrant’s standards. That makes about as much sense as marrying your spouse because you hope to change him or her. A better way forward is to recognize our common humanity and then look at every person’s individual gifts. Ms. Gillard’s comments lead me to believe that she does not quite understand how to do that. ~John Shelby Spong Announcements Join the Global Network of Progressive Christians around the world and connect with other Believer's in Exile! Visit our Global Network page for more information and to add Your Voice! Any questions or concerns, please contact us at support(a)johnshelbyspong.com or 503-236-3545. Copyright © 2013 ProgressiveChristianity.org, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you have a membership at our website. Our mailing address is: ProgressiveChristianity.org 3530 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Unit 1 Portland, OR 97214 Add us to your address book

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Great Television speech -- seems neither business or political leaders
by James Wiegel 05 Feb '13

05 Feb '13

in "real life" can talk like this. hmmmm https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=550154135009477 Jim Wiegel ". . . In this whole world i don't know a more sly, more cunning, useful virtue than sheer dizzy pluck!" The Odyssey A Modern Sequel. Nikos Kazantzakis 401 North Beverly Way, Tolleson, Arizona 85353-2401 +1 623-363-3277 skype: jfredwiegel jfwiegel(a)yahoo.com www.partnersinparticipation.com Upcoming public course opportunities: ToP Facilitation Methods, Feb 12-13, May 14-15, Sept 17-18, 2013 ToP Strategic Planning, Nov 5-6, 2013 Facilitation Graphics, March 19, 2013 The AZ Community of Practice meets the 1st Friday of each month 1-4 pm Facilitation Mastery : Our Mastering the Technology of Participation program is available in Phoenix in 2012-3. Current program began on Nov 14-16, 2012 See short video http://partnersinparticipation.com/?page_id=55 and website for further details. AICP Planners: 14.5 CM for all ToP courses

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I just found a fascinating new book, The Shift Age by David Houle
by Paula Philbrook 04 Feb '13

04 Feb '13

One article said he was the "most important futurist the 21st century. Has any one else run into his thinking or writing? This is a link to his presenting memes-where he thinks we are headed- http://www.memebox.com/futureblogger/show/609-david-houle-s-three-forces-of… You might have to copoy and paste. Paula Sent from my iPad

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The Newkirk family
by Lynda Cock 03 Feb '13

03 Feb '13

_____ From: Lynda Cock [mailto:llc860@triad.rr.com] Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2013 6:00 PM To: 'ljknutsen(a)gmail.com' Subject: The Newkirk family Dearest Newkirk family: Linda, Patricia, Jim, David, Lisa and families, The letter from Linda via Carol Crow really rocks our being as we were completely unprepared for this kind of news about your mother. Diane and I had hoped to make a spring trip to WDC to visit dear colleagues and to visit our old haunts. Sadly, any trip now will be too late to visit with Helen. We send our heartfelt care and sympathy to you all at this sad but sacred time of saying good-byes to an amazing woman of service, strength and determination, a dear colleague, and your wonderful loving mother and grandmother. The past year for us has also been a journey toward "home" with our dad. He died this past August a couple months after his 98th birthday. Your stories of traveling sound so familiar to what we experienced with Dad. Along with "Are we there yet?" and other traveling stories, one of my favorites was his saying to me that he didn't know what to wear in heaven, followed by his telling me that I could find some brand new underwear in his chest of drawers that he wanted to put on now. Thank you, Lord, for laughter in the midst of our deep sadness. We were assigned to the Washington, DC house about 1972. Bill and Helen and Lisa were continuing on another year there and greeted us with much fanfare and celebration. I can hear Helen and Bill's great cheery chuckles as they showed us around assuring us that we were in a great place. The Religious House at that time was in the old Carmelite Monastery on Rhode Island Avenue. The damp cracked plaster in the basement was covered with burlap, creating a warm collegium space along with the colorful felt symbolic banners. We were in the middle of the Local Church Experiment then, and had lots of visitors who were always welcomed warmly and graciously. I remember the wonderful homey meals that Helen oversaw for us. She was a marvelous cook whose cranberry meatloaf is a trade mark of her specialties of making even our simple fare look inviting and taste delicious. The Religious House was right next door to a big cemetery and in a rather run down part of town. One afternoon Lisa went up to their upstairs apartment to find a young men there going through things and with her flute in hand. My memory is that Lisa gave him a swift kick and grabbed her flute as he jumped out the window onto the porch. Many folks would have packed up and left after that kind of incident, but Helen and Bill took it right in stride as one of the kinds of things that could happen when one decided to live among the downtrodden. Lisa demonstrated her strength and courage there also. The Religious House was packed with families and children which Helen with her great Motherhood experience, cheerfully and graciously understood. We spread out and opened the Richmond House and the Baltimore House with our gifted staff of persons who were great recruiters, cooks, enablers and teachers of RS-I and children's RS-I. Helen and Bill's gracious presence and standing in WDC always opened doors for the ICA in higher places, which was a great help as we began looking for a bigger and more suitable location for our Religious House in the nation's capital. What a team they were. We are so grateful for the time we spent with them. They were truly the people of the Yes to the Way Life Is. I know that same spirit is carrying Helen now as she continues her transition and transformation into pure spirit. We celebrate her life/their lives so freely given in service to the world. We hold you all in our hearts as you begin to release her to the Great Beyond during these last sacred days with her. With care and gratitude for our families' journeys together. Lynda Cock (and John) Greensboro, NC

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