Author Archives: blgriffith

Control

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We are rarely as in control as we would like to think.  It seems to me that we always attempt to persuade everyone else and fool ourselves – whether as individuals, groups, churches, assemblies, governments, dictators, et.el. – that we are the masters of our own destiny.  We put forth with much bravado our grand plans and schemes which we believe will secure our security, our affluence, our prestige, and our power.  Yet, nature and world events so often thwart our best laid plans.  Unexpected situations arise so quickly that we can’t respond soon enough, and if we finally do we generally respond with violence of word or deed.

The events these past couple of weeks in Tunisia and now in Egypt have the potential to change everything having to do with world affairs.  If the Arab world is to realize freedom, a measure of prosperity, human dignity, justice and the rule of law, even peace, well, all these things will have to be won by the people themselves – against their own oppressors whomever they may be.  The reality is that the U.S. has come to be seen not as the defenders of liberty, but the supporters of dictators and corruption.  The world is not rejecting the ideals of our Founding Fathers, but of the increasingly bankrupt nature of our culture.

The problem the U.S. faces, which we should have known before the little warrior (whether it was actually him or his adviser manipulators) sent off our troops to invade Iraq, is that we cannot impose something like freedom, democracy, the rule of law, or security unless the people themselves both buy into it and are the vanguard in seeing it through.  If the people believe they don’t have a stake in the whole affair, I don’t see how it will honestly work. 

True revolutionary movements are not planned, they happen.  We can plan for eventualities; we can even attempt to cause the “revolution,” but we are rarely as in control as we would like to think.  The fall of the Soviet empire, the shedding of dictators across the globe – the throwing off of oppression has to be the work of the local people.  We can aid the effort; and if we live up to the best of our ideals we will aid, not cause, the profoundly disruptive and often horribly violent events that are often necessary to throw off tyranny, but the aspirations of local peoples for freedom, dignity, the rule of law, and peace have to be precede and be the under-girding for the aid to actually help and not hinder.  

From an international affairs perspective, what is happening right now in the Middle East is striking.  We shall see whether it is the right time for the people to rise up and demand something better of their governments and their rulers.  Once again, for politically expedient reasons (which, sometimes, is justifiable) we have supported a more-brutal-than-not dictator.  The people are rising up against the corrupt dictator and his government.  We are, once again, on the wrong side because our concern is not for the freedom and dignity of the Egyptian people, but for our political interests in the area. 

The people know this, despite the billions we give to Egypt in foreign aid. Where that aid goes might be a wise question to ask, but only if we
really want to know the answers and if we might truly do something about
the problem. The people know this and so do not
see the U.S. as the defenders of freedom and dignity, but as the
supporters of their oppressors.

So, our embassy is attacked.  We wonder why.  We make the excuse in order to absolve us of any guilt in contributing to the oppressive regime that these are just enemies of the U.S., jealous of our prosperity, enemies of freedom-loving peoples everywhere, but the people in the streets want freedom and security and so they simply attack the symbol and the power behind the corrupt government that rules over them.  We bare the unintended consequences of our actions, our neglect, our profound hubris.

There is just the sense in me that we are on the cusp of significant
change in our political, social, and economic structures, world-wide. 
We like to think we have things under control, but suddenly everything
changes.  We are in such times and heading more deeply into a
fundamental shift.  I’m not sure where the shift will takes us, but it
has begun.  

Stereo Mike

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I came across this ’90’s song and video.  I like it! It is one of those songs that gets into my mind – it has that hook effect.  I love the voice of the black woman singing (don’t know her name).

The old electronics – cutting edge back then – could fetch a bit of money these days for the nostalgia effect.  Too bad their drinking in LA got a little over done and led to the smashing of that bitchin’ Mac laptop (before the OS went all Unix) they were using to make their cool groves.  The song is from “Bran Van 3000,” a group out of Montreal (I think).  By the way, they have a new album that came out in 2010.

Official website: http://bv3.ca/

Tuscon: Liturgies of Anger

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I just read a great blog post entitled “Tuscon: Liturgies of Anger” by David+ from “As kthe Priest.”  It deals with the recent shootings in Tucson, Arizona, and the role vitriolic political and Culture War rhetoric plays in the escalation of violence. While many extreme-minded people on the Right tend to down play their role in all this (and people of the more extreme left are not exempt, either – it takes two to tango, after all), the author brings into the discussion a very interesting idea.

For those of us in liturgical Churches, we well understand the role and effect of the liturgy within and upon people – their thoughts, their lives, their dispositions, their sense of selves and their place in the world, etc.  The repeated rhythms and foci of liturgies have a transformative effect on and in peoples’ lives. The words of Scripture, prayers, confessions, and reflections get into us, and we believe the Holy Spirit uses all these aspects of liturgy to change us to better reflect the imago of God and to be made evermore into the image of Christ.

If we understand the transformative role of the liturgies and the repeated forms, then we also know that the continual drone of vitriol, character assassination, etc., has a deleterious effect on our culture and upon the thinking and acting of ordinary people – all of us. To deny such a thing is to deny the understanding of Madison Ave. and all the ad-men/women who pump out billions of dollars of advertisements to get us to buy products, to change our minds on certain causes, and to vote for certain people.

Living within a society that champions free-speech is one thing, but engaging in false witness, in manipulative speech designed to denigrate and vilify one’s opponent, designed to tear down responsible trust in our government (particulalrly the courst), etc., will only result in this kind of thing. These are the actions of frustrated people who know that their positions have become unaccepted and unbelieved by the majority of people.  Their arguments are not persuasive for the majority of citizens, and then suddenly the end justifies whatever means they can devise to win.

I’ve been saying for a few years now that if we continue on down of our current political and Culture War path, a representative democracy will not be possible.  This is the kind of outcome that we allow! If we don’t stand up and demand civility among our elected officials and demand to stop those who strive to manipulate the process and populace when their arguments to persuade the rest of us of the rightness of their cause fail them, then we deserve what we get.

By the way, a former seminary-mate of mine one year behind my class, The Rev. Cn. Amy Coultas, is one of the contributing priests.

Signs of the Times: Young Adult Fiction

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There is an interesting conversation in the New York Times “Room for Debate” section of the Opinion pages under the title, “The Dark Side of Young Adult Fiction.”  The conversation is among several authors of young adult-literature and professors related to young adult development and culture concerning the trend in young-adult literature toward dark and dystopian themes.

Here are the two questions up for conversation:

  1. Why do bestselling young adult novels seem darker in theme now than in
    past years?
  2. What’s behind this dystopian trend, and why is there so much
    demand for it?

Several people contribute their opinions.  I particularly like Paolo Bacigalupi’s essay on “Craving Truth-Telling” and Maggie Stiefvater’s “Pure Escapism.”

A different religion?

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“We have come with some confidence to believe that a significant part of Christianity in the United States is actually only tenuously Christian in any sense that it is seriously connected to the actual historical Christian tradition… It is not so much that U.S. Christianity is being secularized.  Rather, more subtly, Christianity is either degenerating into a pathetic version of itself or, more significantly, Christianity is actively being colonized and displaced by quite a different religious faith.”

-Christian Smith with Melinda Denten; quote from: Almost Christian: what the faith of our teenagers is telling the American Church, by Kendra Creasy Dean (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010; p.3)

Cover of

Cover via Amazon

I’m very interested in reading this book.  The quote above fits very well with what I have been observing and experiencing over the last decade, at least.  Much of the “Christianity” I witness from both the supposed “Left” and “Right” are combining into something that is only vaguely recognizable as Christianity when couched within the historic tradition of the Faith.

I believe this is one of many reasons, albeit a more prominent reason, for the distrust and poor image the U.S. Church in general has among younger people.  I believe this is one reason for the decline in the success of the Church in the U.S. to truthfully engage the emerging culture and emerging generations in ways that resonate with them – ways that actually smack of Jesus’ example and his teachings.

Here are excerpts from the opening page from Kendra Dean, the author:

“Let me save you some trouble.  Here is the gist of what you are about to read: American young people are, theoretically, fine with religious faith – but it does not concern them very much, and it is not durable enough to survive long after they graduate from high school.

“One more thing: we’re responsible.

“…the religiosity of American teenagers must be read as a reflection of their parents’ religious devotion (or lack thereof) and, by extension, that of their congregations. Teenagers themselves consistently demonstrate an openness to religion, but few of them are deeply committed to one.”

What in the world are we doing with this ancient faith in these days that makes this faith that has endured 2,000 years of trial, persecution, within a multitude of cultures and languages, so “not durable” among our young? 

I agree with Dean, but we have to face squarely that we (those who are currently leading or moving into leadership) are failing the One-Who-Came-to-Gives-Us-Life-to-the-Full among the young.  I don’t blame them; the fault is ours – “by our fault, by our own fault, by our most grievous fault.”

Is it really the case that we would rather justify our own selves (all of our pet and “insightful” theories) while our actions speak volumes of faithlessness, neglect, polarization, hubris, greed, hypocrisy?  I think so.  Read the results of Barna’s research in their book, “unChristian.”

We’ve got to end this. Lord, make speed to help us!

Motivations of the Day (of the Christianist kind)

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Regrettably, Newsweek (which I’ve subscribed to since high school – I’m a news geek) isn’t posting online its most recent edition (which I received by mail on Tuesday). If it did, I would link the most recent “Scope” article by Lisa Miller. She writes about what is motivating the Religious Right leading up to the 2012 elections (already?).

Miller suggests that what is motivating Evangelical Christians in the USA of the Religious Right stripe is not the culture-war issues as in the last general election, like abortion or gay-marriage, but what is motivating them for the upcoming election “is a vision of America as God’s own special country and a belief that free-market capitalism is crucial to its flourishing,” according to Tony Campolo.

A quote by Tony Compolo from the article:

“The marriage between evangelicalism and patriotic nationalism is so strong… that anybody who is raising questions about loyalty to the old laissez-faire capitalist system – by, say, supporting bailouts – is unpatriotic, un-American, and, by association, non-Christian.” This is a shame for the cause of Christ in the USA!”

This is a sad day for Christianity and the Cause of Christ in the United States.  We reduce the enduring and life-giving Gospel of to political and/or economic ideologies that are nothing more than the creations of Man, not God!  The Church and the Gospel are defamed and trivialized to the point of being nothing more than a reflection of the latest cultural trend. 

With respect to the Gospel and an eternal perspective there is no such thing as “American Exceptionalism.”  There may well be exceptional things that have come out of the United States during its history, but that does not mean there is such a thing as a divinely established “American Exceptionalism.”  A word for those who believe such a thing may be hubris or perhaps vainglory. 

We wouldn’t be what we are today if it were not for the exceptional nature of the English contribution to world history.  Yet, I don’t hear of an English Exceptionalism (of course, the colonized peoples of the world would certainly make exception to such a claim).

A little humility, please, and the acknowledgment that this culture is anything but Christian – as least as Scripture and the authors of it describe this thing called the life in Christ.  (All of this coming from a person, me, who truly believes that many very positive and creative things coming out of the United States have been valuable contributions to the world’s well being, reflected in such things as American ingenuity and out of the Protestant Work Ethic, and from one who tends to be more philosophically conservative – which is different than the present neo-Conservative idiocy.)

So, there you go.

The Elephant

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There is always an elephant in the room.  Sometimes we are better at admitting it than not. Its seems only common sense that to solve a problem it is best to recognize the elephant and deal with it.  Common sense. Common. Sense.

Sometimes I think I am too intent on identifying the problems that have caused and still cause so many of our problems, whether individual, within the Church common, or within our national psyche.  Sometimes, I think that identifying those big old elephants even when others would rather focus on the positive stuff that skirts the invisible thing in the room just may not make me all that popular, but I just can’t seem to let it go.

I don’t know… I do think that if we want to solve our problems and resolve our issues we must have everything out in the open and public and recognized and admitted.  If we don’t, I just don’t know how we will really solve anything.  Reading through some of my previous posts – so negative as I attempt to discover and identify the elephants.  Will this get me to where I want to go?  Perhaps not, but I’m simply processing out loud.  I suppose.