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053 <previous< Issue
054 Volume 11 No. 2 Spring 2005 >next>
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Table of Contents - Spring 2005
Happy Birthday!
So Shakespeare in Julius Caesar has Brutus to say to Cassius. There have been some tides
in my own life, which, to contort poor William’s immortal words a bit, I have
taken at the ebb, leaving me bound in shallows and in miseries—somewhat. Yes.
Hoist by my own petard, to borrow Hamlet’s felicitous phrase, blown up by my own
dynamite. There Is No Tomorrow One of the biggest changes in politics in my lifetime is that the delusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the seat of power in the Oval Office and in Congress. For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington. Theology asserts
propositions that cannot be proven true; ideologues hold stoutly to a worldview
despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. When
ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad, but they are
always blind. And there is the danger: voters and politicians alike, oblivious
to the facts. Antonin Scalia: Our Next Chief Justice? Justice Antonin Scalia joined the Supreme Court in 1986 as its most recent appointee. He soon made a reputation as the most far-right member of the Court. He is an outspoken leader of the very conservative Federalist Society and a devoted right-wing Catholic. Alan Dershowitz, in his book
Supreme Injustice (New York:
Oxford University Press, 2001), wrote that Scalia’s “conservatisms, according to
a professor who is an expert in these matters, are ‘of the Old World European
sort, rooted in the authority of the Church and the military. It is more
reminiscent of French, Italian and Spanish clerical conservatism than of
American conservatism with its libertarian bent.’” The Faith of Mother Teresa Mother Teresa has long been my hero. A missionary of love and hope to the entire world, Mother Teresa profoundly shaped my understanding of the Christian faith. She provided for me a model of what Christ calls each of us to be and do. Every day of her life, no matter where she was or what she was doing, she lived her faith. But to be honest, I always
found Mother Teresa’s faith to be a bit simplistic, and I have never been able
to resonate with her complete and unquestioning assurance. I never understood
how she managed to work among the poorest of the poor and to wash the bodies of
lepers and AIDs patients without asking why, without questioning God’s role in
all the suffering. But in recent days, I have discovered that she had her share
of doubts. The Power of Reconciliation
There is probably no more divisive time in America than an election season. So I thought it appropriate to tell a story of reconciliation that is very important to me, and one that I have never told before. It is about my relationship with a fellow Christian who, if he were still alive, would likely be voting differently than me in the upcoming election. Bill Bright was the founder
and president of Campus Crusade for Christ, an evangelical organization on
campuses around the country. Motivated, above all else, by the Great Commission,
Bill Bright wanted to reach every person on the planet for Christ “in this
generation.” Concerned about the “moral degeneration” of America, Bright wanted America to come back to God—which for him
meant an ultra-conservative political agenda. Bill and I were both evangelical
Christians, but we clearly disagreed on a whole range of political issues.
What Jesus Wouldn’t Do The politics of Jesus is a problem for the religious right. In Matthew’s 25th chapter, Jesus speaks of the hungry, the homeless, the stranger, prisoners, and the sick and promises he will challenge all his followers on the judgment day with these words, “As you have done to the least of these, you have done to me.” James Forbes, the pastor of Riverside Church in New York City, concludes from that text that, “Nobody gets to heaven without a letter of reference from the poor!” How many of America’s most famous television preachers could produce the letter? The hardest saying of Jesus
and perhaps the most controversial in our post–Sept. 11 world must be: “Love
your enemies, pray for those who persecute you.” Let’s be honest: How many
churches in the United States have heard sermons preached from either of these Jesus texts
in the years since
America was viciously attacked on that
world-changing September morning in 2001? Shouldn’t we at least have a debate
about what the words of Jesus mean in the new world of terrorist threats and
pre-emptive wars? A Dad’s War Story I think about my nineteen-year-old son in Iraq all the time. I wake up thinking about him; I go to bed thinking about him. I wonder what he is doing, where is he, and what he is thinking and feeling. Is he alive? Is he hurt? Is he safe: I even dream about him. I wait for his next phone call, his next letter, or his next e-mail. When they don’t come, sometimes for a week or so, I really become anxious. But we have learned that no news is usually good news. There is a quiet anguish at
our house. It is underneath the surface, unseen, but you know that it is there.
I pray a lot? Most of all I pray my version of the sinner’s prayer: “Lord Jesus
Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon my son.” Of course, I pray for his safety. I
pray that he will have the wisdom, skill, and courage necessary to do his job
and stay safe. I pray for his protection. But most of all I pray over-and-over
my version of the sinner’s prayer. These words seem to be the best words for me. Updated Tuesday, July 12, 2005 |
The Terri Schiavo Case
Over two years ago, I listened intently as the neurologist met with my 54-year-old brother’s family three days after the sudden heart attack that left him unconscious and on a ventilator. Our pain compounded as the doctor said to his children, “Your dad will not recover. He has no higher brain functioning. He has no response to pain stimuli. There is no hope.” His sons left the room and returned in about twenty minutes. “We’ve decided to remove dad from the ventilator and donate his organs. We know that is what he would want us to do.” When the day arrived,
several of us sat with my brother, Thomas, after the vent was removed.
Compassionate doctors and nurses had moved him from ICU to a single room for our
privacy. We held his hand, stroked his face, and listened to his labored
breathing. He made no response to us, but the lower brain functioning continued
to direct his autonomic systems of breathing and circulation. Six hours later,
his body relaxed and released him from his struggle. He died with dignity. God and the Tsunami The most catastrophic event
in recent memory is the giant earthquake that erupted under the
Indian Ocean on
December 26, 2004, caused by the movement of two tectonic plates four thousand
fathoms under the surface of the sea. Registering 9.0 on the Richter scale, this
two-hundred megaton jolt thrust up a giant wave a hundred feet high that raced
at nearly five-hundred miles an hour to devastate 3,000 miles of unprotected
shoreline. Saturation media coverage makes it unnecessary to dwell here on the
carnage that has already caused 300,000 deaths, 250,000 of them in Indonesia alone. Instead, we focus on the
profound religious issues raised by the sheer arbitrariness of the disaster.
Since tsunamis do not play politics, there are no enemy terrorists to blame, so
does that make God the culprit? More Honest Churches Needed
Jerry Falwell’s remarks last August 24 at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary chapel service sound, well, very much like Jerry Falwell. The question many Baptists should ask is, “Does this sound very much like my Baptist church?” Although Falwell’s political
comments received much attention, his words of advice for the role of future
seminarians and the churches they will serve were both horrifying and humorous
at the same time: “May God lead many of you to some of these moderate churches
that deserve fundamentalist pastors like you. . . . Sometimes it takes a full
year before that church is who you are.” The Parable of the Bowl of Soup—Part II Note: This article is a continuation of Part I found in the last issue of the Journal (Winter, 2005). Click Here for Part I After practicing law in Austin for twenty years, I wanted to become involved with others who had experienced forms of mental illness. I had been diagnosed bipolar twenty years earlier and had gone to law school and practiced law after that. I wanted to repay those who had helped me by helping others. I wrote a letter to the
Mental Health Association and offered my services. I helped organize the first
support groups for former mental patients in Texas—perhaps the nation. After three
years of traveling Texas we had groups in 25 cities. I was
then given an okay to organize a retreat for former mental patients. A Greater Conspiracy Than The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown’s novel, The Da
Vinci Code (Doubleday, 2003), boasts over 17 million copies in print. Ron Howard
has agreed to direct a movie version. Rumor has it that Tom Hanks will star as
the dashing and cerebral main character, Robert Langdon (not the actor I would
have picked—I can’t get Forrest Gump out of my mind whenever I see Tom Hanks).
The fast paced novel has created more than a spark of interest and controversy
since its release in 2003. Currently, there are fifteen books, four DVDs, and
countless articles that investigate, illuminate, decode, and rebut The Da Vinci
Code. The buzz surrounding this novel arises from the conspiracy theory about
the life and bloodline of Jesus that is central to the novel’s plot.
Essentially, Dan Brown raises the question: What if Jesus had been married? What
if his original ministry had been a team effort with his wife and what if his
wife (Mary Magdalene) had been written out of the story by the early,
male-dominated church? What if he had a child who survived him and who carried
on his lineage into the present times? Gad-A Prophet For Our Times
Who in the world was Gad? As a prophet he is so obscure that even book editors confuse him with God![iv] So, you need not feel biblically ignorant if you haven’t heard of David’s “house prophet,” Gad. Gad is most frequently used
in the Old Testament as a place name, and we have only two incidents referring
to the prophet who served King David and his family. The first brief incident is
in 1 Samuel 22:5, where Gad instructs David to leave the stronghold and go into
the land of Judah. Though we know nothing about Gad’s
background or his call as a prophet, his credentials are revealed in the second
passage: “The Lord said to Gad, David’s prophet, ‘Go and tell David . . . .’” (2
Sam. 24:11). He Kept On Keeping On—A Tribute To My Grandfather
Note: The writer is in the eleventh grade, a member of Boulevard Baptist Church, and grandson of my Christian ethics classmate and friend. His grandmother Mary served on the Christian Life Commission of the SBC during Foy Valentine’s tenure. This morning my mother
carefully handed me the cassettes she had retrieved from my grandmother’s house.
“This is me doing the children’s sermon,” she said, passing the tape to me.
“This one is Debbie and me reading the Scripture.” She placed several more on
the countertop. “This one,” she said, holding up a particular tape, “is what
Mimi called a very sacred one. It’s Eddie singing, ‘O Holy Night.’ She said to
make sure nothing happens to it.” Delicately I picked through the old tapes,
searching for labels that grabbed my attention. I chose one that read
6-22-80. Inserting it into my stereo, I
anticipated the shaky baritone of a man ridden with Parkinson’s disease,
Instead, a strangely unfamiliar, rich and persuasive tone flowed from the
speakers. I hardly knew my grandfather, but I do know this much: as a Baptist
minister, he affected many people and as a role model, he affects me even now.
For these reasons, he is my favorite Baptist. Poetry COME TO THE AUTOGRAPH PARTY MEET FOY VALENTINE AT THE CBF ASSEMBLY
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