Chris Hedges

My first introduction to Chris Hedges was in a 2008 interview in Sun Magazine. I was intreagued by his thoughts and found his insights to be both provocative and intellectual as well as spiritual and prophetic. Recently, my friend Peter lent me Hedges' popular book, War is a Force that Gives us Meaning- it's been a good, thought-provoking read. Mr. Hedges spoke at Seattle Town Hall last week on the topics of consumerism, celebrity worship and the cult of the self in America [topics I get particularly fired up by]. You can listen to it here if you like. Good stuff.

Confirmation Hearings and Hermeneutics

I have enjoyed listening to snippets of the discussion around the confirmation hearings of Sonia Sotomayor this week. One of the primary issues that has garnished a great deal of media attention has been the speculation in regards to how her personal background affects [or doesn't] her reading of the law. I find this fascinating in that it is clearly a question of hermeneutics, one that apparently affects government as much as it does the church. While obvious differences exist, they are similar struggles to interpret historical texts for current contexts. Both assume that the document is bears relevance and can speak into our context. But both often fail to keep in mind how it is that the interpreter brings context with her and thus has a lens through which the text is read. Her most famous and controversial statement was made in 2001- "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life" [source/context]. While this may or may not be true (in regards to the conclusion being "better"), Sotomayor highlights that interpretation does not occur in a vacuum: it requires wisdom, and wisdom is always acquired through experience- thus, our experience clearly shapes our wisdom. Hermeneutics is by definition a contextual art. We all have lenses, even if we fail to or are unwilling to acknowledge them.
Later, however, Sotomayor was forced to clarify/qualify that statement with the acknowledgment that while life experience shapes who one is, "ultimately and completely" a judge follows the law regardless of personal background [source/context]. Ok, sure. I can appreciate that response, because it indicates a degree of interpretive elasticity inherent in the law. But it must be noted that it is the anxiety around the loss of absolutes that drives the need for said qualifier to be offered. The same is true for the Biblical text- while meaning and truth can be found with the guidance of the Spirit in an interpretive community, the text is alive enough to speak to any context, through each of our unique lenses. This interpretation "from below" sends absolutism packing and opens theology up for contextual readings of the text.

[happy] president's day

this has been floating around on various blogs, i like it. it's by patrick moberg.

this year...

...mlk day bears unique significance.

if you have never taken the time to listen to the complete speech by rev/doc martin luther king jr, listen to it today- with fresh ears, given the current events.

artwork by ben heine.

ken robinson says...

that in education creativity is as important as literacy and that we educate our kids out of their creativity and that we stigmatize mistakes and teach kids to be afraid of being wrong and that education is all about the brain (and slightly to one side) and doesn't teach kids to think with their bodies and that we treat our bodies as mere vehicles for our heads and that our entire education system is deeply flawed because it was created to sustain the industrial revolution. ok. watch it here, it's the best use of the next 20 minutes you were about to dither away on facebook or whatever.

"misunderestimated"

well, after two long terms he finally has about 10 more days in office. what a wild ride. i'm sure we'll miss the comedic relief (see today's bbc collection of favorite "bushisms"), but there's a lot we wont miss.



i posted this brilliant video a while back and by now most folks have seen it, but thought it was worth bringing back to say farewell...

Imagine if the world were 100 people:

In our global village... the resources are unevenly distributed. The richest person in the village has as much as the poorest 57 taken together. Fifty do not have a reliable source of food and are hungry some of the time, and 30 suffer malnutrition. Forty do not have access to adequate sanitation; 31 people live in substandard housing; 31 do not have electricity; 18 are unable to read; 15 do not have access to safe drinking water. Only 16 people have access to the Internet. Only 12 own an automobile. Three are migrating. And only two have a college education. Overall, 19 struggle to survive on one dollar per day or less; 48 struggle to live on two dollars a day or less. In brief, as the World Bank describes it, two thirds of the planet lives in poverty.

- in context: Daniel Groody, Globalization, Spirituality, and Justice, pg 3-4.

Post Election Day

You Creator God
who has ordered us
in families and communities
in clans and tribes
in states and nations

You Creator God
who enact your governance
in ways overt and
in ways hidden
You exercise your will for
peace and for justice and for freedom

We give you thanks for the peaceable order of
our nation and for the chance of choosing
all the manipulative money notwithstanding

We pray now for new governance
that your will and purpose may prevail
that our leaders may have a sense
of justice and goodness,
that we as citizens may care about the
public face of your purpose

We pray in the name of Jesus who was executed
by the authorities.

from Prayers for a Privileged People, by Walter Brueggemann

it's the final count down!

credit: mr. brainwash in los angeles via wooster collective.
today's soundtrack provided by europe.

Oaxaca Uprising: left-over street art

This is my first time back in my hometown of Oaxaca since the riots last year. Most everything is put back together and most of the graffiti has been covered up. But not all of it. I've been struck with the creative drive that lies at the heart of any movement that desires change, even if it becomes destructive. On the other hand, there is little creative inspiration rising from those who desire to maintain power and control. These political posters and street-art are a visual feast. Keep checking this web-album, I'll try to add more as I stumble upon them.
"Oaxaca no esta en Paz"

the in-between

I, like most people, attempt to make sense of the world through forms of "splitting." We like black and white thinking, gray is uncomfortable. Often, children use splitting as a defense mechanism: "When a two year old looks at the world, they see things as going entirely their way, or as a disaster. Mom is here, and feeding me, so she must be good. Mom is in the other room, she therefore doesn't exist (object constancy) so she has abandoned me, and is bad."*
This kinetic dualism we juggle justifies our realities- if I want to feel good about one decision, I have to make all other options bad. If my religion is right, all others are wrong. If my country's form of government is the best, all others are unacceptable. Essentially, splitting is the inability to stay in the "in-between" without an anxiety that paralyzes us.
Good Bye Lenin! is a film that doesn't let you split- I'll try not to spoil the plot. For me, the message of the film was that every victory contains a loss. Life behind the "Iron Curtain" wasn't ALL-bad and the "freedom" to "westernize" wasn't ALL-good. Wherever people end up living, they always create beauty and meaning. When the structure for that lifestyle changes, often much of the circumstantial beauty and meaning disappears. The passing of that regime was filled with ambivalence: it's nice to be able to travel and eat Burger King, but the nostalgia for life as it was is also present.
All of this made me wonder how much psychological splitting our nation had to do feel justified in our decision to launch a "pre-emptive strike" against a "potential threat." It's difficult to harm another when we are fully conscious of their dignity and depravity. It's easy when they are ALL-bad. Further, what routines, lifestyles, habits of being and traditions are no longer for some people. How much beauty and meaning had been created behind that "Iron Curtain" that is now lost forever?
But I guess it doesn't matter, we've given them "democracy"...

oh come oh come emmanuel

stream sufjan's 5 christmas albums (have your self a folky folky christmas...)
great santa post by chuck (low art? poor taste? dying myth?)
old post by aaron that needs more conversation (santa and western materialism)
what does christmas mean today?
as the president wants to boost the military presence in iraq?
in the wake of aids awareness day...
the call to each of us to bear christ is upon us,
as we embody the incarnation anew in this broken world.
peace on earth = relationality restored.

if only...

this is amazing.
is it so bad to dream a little?
what if the power of one man
could be united with the passions
of another? what if good was done
from the seat of greatest power
in the world?
perhaps... this country's foreign
policy wouldn't be characterized
by such fragile narcissism...

"progress"

three years ago today this iconic photograph of american triumphalism was taken in bagdad. three years later, many of us are wondering "what the hell is going on?"
my intention is not to raise an overdebated hot issue, but just to mark this day in memory and juxtapose it with the other event that is remembered today: palm sunday.
if you have time, read through this thoughtful essay a prof of mine wrote: Christian Reflections on War.
here's a quote fom it- "Many Christians in the United States seem to have confused Caesar and Christ. We seem to have confused a kingdom of this world—our nation—with the Kingdom of God. The will and interests of our nation have become conflated with the will and values of God."

a thought for lent in america

"the great sin of white north-american middle-class protestantism is shallow hopelessness, 'cheap hope.' we cannot be said to have a gospel because we refuse to know enough of the bad news to prepare our collective soul for the good. our insistence upon being and remaining positive and optomistic is what prevents us from exploring deeply the meaning of hope, biblically understood. we want to have easter sunday without good friday- or better, we desire a friday so 'good' that it is no longer for us a sybolic mode of identification with the suffering world."
- douglas j. hall, confessing the faith- 1998.
image copyright: phil nellis, 2004.

bono

at the national prayer breakfast here.

jesus vs jesus

what has happened to america's jesus? (thanks aaron)

"Several times during the week, I thought about telling my family what's happened to Jesus in the United States - how he's been kidnapped by politicians and preachers who decide what he does and doesn't think. They speak for him, and it doesn't always make sense.
They say Jesus is 'pro life,' but he doesn't seem to have a problem with the death penalty. And he thinks stem cell research - something that would save lives - is no different from murdering babies. They say he's the embodiment of kindness, love, decency and compassion. But he hates gays, lesbians and Muslims. And he's not too crazy about Buddhists, Hindus and the rest. Jews? He can put up with them if he has to."