Gone to Nawlins…

Gone to New Orleans on Vacation. Will be back up and blogging away on June 2nd. I’ll drink some cafe au lait in the place of blogging this week.

Stanley Hauerwas on Bonhoeffer

Stanley Hauerwas on Dietrich Bonhoeffer on truthful speech and politics. Haven’t watched it yet, but I’m sure that if it’s Hauerwas then it is…colorful?

Shane Claiborne on Catonsville 9

Shane Claiborne reflects on the Catonsville 9, a group of people who burned draft files with homemade napalm in protest of the Vietnam War on May 15th, 1968 which included the infamous Philip and Daniel Berrigan. I began reading some books by these two brothers about a month ago. Love it or hate it, but you can’t ignore what they say and do…

Some quotes from Claiborne’s post:

The end of war begins with people who believe that another world is possible and that another empire has already interrupted time and space and is taking over this earth with the dreams of God. Those dreams begin with people of faith and hope who are audacious enough to be certain of what they do not see. We believe so much that we cannot help but start enacting the prophecies. As our brother Jim Wallis says, “We believe despite the evidence, and we watch the evidence change.”

We are people who believe in conversion. We believe things can be transformed into new creations.

Strangers Bring Us Closer To God

Check out a short essay called “Strangers Bring Us Closer To God” by Sara Miles.

Here’s quotes:

I came to believe that God is revealed not only in bread and wine during church services, but whenever we share food with others — particularly strangers. I came to believe that the fruits of creation are for everyone, without exception — not something to be doled out to insiders or the “deserving.”

-AND-

This I believe: that by opening ourselves to strangers, we will taste God.

I haven’t read her book, but Atlanta’s Public Library does have a copy so I’ll probably get around to it sometime. Hope it’s more of this.

Words We Need Today

Martin Luther King, Jr. from “A Time to Break Silence” (1967):

Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours.

DEMANDing Change

Here are some thoughts that were rattling around in my noggin’ after I watched the Radiohead video for “All I Need.” Here is the video and a few thoughts…

 

We have arranged our world in ways that ensure that others stay where they are, making next to nothing so that we can have cheap shoes, clothes, etc. It is EVIL. If we know that it is happening and do nothing, then we have joined forces with EVIL.

So let’s at least make a freakin’ effort people.

Read a book about it. Buy Fair Trade. Invest in Microfinance abroad.

STOP CONSUMING at the rate that you do.

The West’s overconsumption creates a demand for low-priced products in obscene bulk. The nature of the Global economy is arranged to satisfy our overconsumption. This is the defining reality of our economic existence. The nature and shape of the global economy is a human rights issue. Most people think that it is just the way things are and that we should focus our efforts on things that we can actually change. Wrong.

We can change the nature and shape of the global economy. It’s not a top down thing. It’s a bottom up thing. Here are some defining questions…

What drives and shapes every market? DEMAND.

Who creates demand? LARGE GROUPS OF PEOPLE.

What makes up large groups of people? WE DO.

We can make a change in the global economy.

What if people started to re-shape the DEMAND side of this thing? What if people began to DEMAND fair trade coffee. Fair trade clothing. Fair trade shoes. Fair trade everything.

What if we, the people, put companies that barter in blood-stained products at low prices out of business by refusing to support that kind of DEMAND?

What if we invested in micro-finance in poverty-stricken parts of the world, rather than in the oil companies?

What if, instead of crying to the government that they have not properly regulated imported toys with lead-based paint which could harm our children, we demanded that they properly regulate imported products that harm the children that are forced to make them? [I find it pretty ironic that the lead-tainted toys were only a concern for American children, not the children who probably painted them.]

What if, we re-defined the DEMAND that drives the global marketplace in which American consumers play an overwhelmingly influential role?

And what if, rather than sitting on the bench until the fourth quarter of this movement, followers of Jesus were in the game from the start?

We could actually change the world.

And even if we didn’t give a crap about the poor of the world at whose expense we are able to buy products at the “dollar store”, IT IS NOT SUSTAINABLE for America.

And how ironic that the “supposed” solution to a weak economy is to consume more. “The economy is weak, so here’s some money. Go spend it on a big-screen TV, some new clothes and a laptop.” It’s as if we have passed a point of no return. There is no consuming less. If we do, the economy falls apart. We’ve built a machine that cannot function unless we over-consume in all arenas of life. To reduce consumption is to destroy our economy.

Re-shaping the US economy is the same process as re-shaping the Global economy. Re-shape our DEMAND. It will be hard and we will have to make painful changes to our lifestyles as individuals and as nations, but more of the same is not an option.

IF WE DO NOT ABSORB THE COST INVOLVED IN CHANGING THE SHAPE OF OUR CONSUMPTION AND ECONOMY, THE POOR OF THE WORLD WILL CONTINUE TO CARRY IT ON THEIR SHOULDERS. AND FOR THAT TO CONTINUE WOULD BE EVIL.

We must do something. We must consume less and we must be aware of the cost of the things that we do consume to those who produce them.

The shape of our consumption WILL cost someone.

So…Let’s change the world.

If anyone wants to think more deeply about some of this stuff, Brian McLaren’s book Everything Must Change, is a great place to start.

Tuesday Tunes - Amber Rubarth

I just heard a song by Amber Rubarth last week on NPR’s show “All Songs Considered.” I had no idea who she was and actually mistook her song for another artist.

It seems that her website is about to be overhauled completely, so the best place to check out the music is on the myspace page, where you can hear about eight of her songs.

All the songs are pretty great. I especially reccomend checking out the song “You Will Love This Song” on the myspace page.

Her songs are really ingeniously arranged and at the same time are really straightforward. Check it out…

Adventures in Homebrewing - Preacher’s Pale Ale

Yesterday before our church gathered together at 5pm, I spent the day bottling and brewing. I worked saturday night until about 1am and and didn’t end up getting home until around 2am. So yesterday morning I got up early, downed two red bulls and bottled 5 gallons of Dark Sleep Stout. Suffice it to say that the brewmaster was ready to pass out from shear exhaustion by 3pm.

After I had cleaned and soaked all of my equipment. I started making a batch of what I’m going to call the Preacher’s Pale Ale. It is the first recipe that I’ve come up with myself, so I’m going to keep my fingers crossed while it’s fermenting in the closet. [I just opened the closet door and the fermentation lock is bubbling away...which is a good thing.]

I’m gonna give the Dark Sleep Stout about two or three weeks in the bottle before I dig in, but if anyone who lives in the ATL wants to try it, then shoot me an email in a few weeks…

McKnight on Wrath

Today, Scot McKnight is beginning a series of posts on God’s Wrath. Should be good. He starts with a series of questions to get the mental juices pumping…

McLaren on the God’s Politics Blog

Brian McLaren posted a refreshing and insightful thought over at the God’s Politics Blog. It is called Fearsome, Fearless, and Fearful. It is definitely worth checking out.

He’s specifically talking about how Kay Warren is being slammed in the blogosphere for being a part of an event with more progressive thinking individuals (both theologically & politically), but I can’t help but read a little deeper meaning under the surface.

Let’s see…who else is being slammed right now in the media on the basis of who they are “friendly” with?