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Table of Contents - Christmas 2006
Alleluia
“No one can
celebrate a genuine Christmas Solstice Like Jerome Kern’s ole man river that “jus’ keeps on rolin’ along,” old man sun just keeps on running its successive journeys across the sky, east to west, day in and day out, from winter through spring to summer and then through fall and back again to winter, so on and so forth. Now, in this circadian rhythm there is, as
we all have been taught, a winter solstice and a summer solstice with points in
between which observers of such natural phenomena have named the vernal equinox
and the autumnal equinox, spring and fall. Of all these observable events, none
is quite as portentous as the winter solstice. Which at last gets me somewhat
closer to a point which is loosely lodged in my little mind. We’re not there
yet, to be sure, but we’re moving on. The Role of Religion in Politics
Today I’d like to talk about the connection between religion and politics and perhaps offer some thoughts about how we can sort through some of the often bitter arguments that we’ve been seeing over the last several years. I do so because, as you all know,
we can affirm the importance of poverty in the Bible, and we can discuss the
religious call to address poverty and environmental stewardship all we want,
but it won’t have an impact unless we tackle head-on the mutual suspicion that
sometimes exists between religious America and secular America.
The Haggard
Affair: Overlooked Issues Is there anything left to say about the Haggard affair? Probably you are weary of the story, broadcast for weeks by the media. The mega-church pastor and president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) who resigned both positions after a former male prostitute charged that monthly for three years Rev. Ted Haggard had met him in a hotel room, where Haggard also acknowledged buying crystal meth from the gay man. My first response was a mixture of Grief—Disappointment—Sadness—and Concern. On my desk are ten reports, ranging from
the Religious News Service to Newsweek magazine. I have read them all. Yet,
something troubles me deeply. In all these accounts—both secular and religious—key
issues have been omitted or misunderstood. Issues vital for understanding,
preventing, and responding to clergy sexual misconduct were overlooked or
sometimes misinterpreted. A War of Words About War
Alasdair MacIntyre’s opening parable
in After Virtue has enjoyed amazing staying power among moral
philosophers. I wish I had a dollar for every time it has been retold. Repeated
in numerous contexts, the parable tells of a civilization that destroys the
discipline of science and rids itself of scientists, but continues to circulate
the vocabulary of science. In so doing, the people of this civilization mistake
the use of certain terms and phrases for the actual practice of science. The
long-standing assumption is that this parable in some way describes the
American state of affairs with regards to the discipline of morality. MacIntyre’s
point is that the language of right and wrong is still with us, but the
practice of virtues has long been forgotten. His assessment of the moral scene
has, notwithstanding a few detractors,[1] been the dominant account for the past twenty
years.
Democracy
in With all of the posturing regarding the
installation of free elections and the opining by the Bush administration that
such elections are indications of the further development of a democratic form
of government in Iraq, little real progress towards a democracy in that country
is evident. This is not surprising, since democracy in most free countries has
taken centuries to develop. That the Bush administration, and any future Updated Friday, January 19, 2007 |
Is There A War On Christmas? Are “Christian haters” and “professional atheists” engaged in an all-out war on Christmas, as FOX News anchor John Gibson claims? I don’t think so-unless one is prepared to say that President Bush and the First Lady are leading the effort. Last year’s White House greeting card extends “best wishes for a holiday season of hope and happiness.” No mention of “Merry Christmas” from the First Family. About a dozen holy days
are observed by various religious groups between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.
For decades we have been confronted by that “December dilemma” of how to
acknowledge and celebrate winter religious holidays, usually in the context of
the schools, in a way that is constitutional and culturally sensitive. People
of good faith, including the Baptist Joint Committee, have worked long and hard
to develop guidelines that comply with the Supreme Court’s interpretation of
the First Amendment’s religion clauses, and respect the amazing religious
diversity in this country. Evangelicals
and Election Day
With regard to the recent election—was it a seismic or glacial change?—I want
to make one observation or suggestion. (It’s in the “watch your language”
category.) Ever since my article “The New Christian Right” appeared in the
Encyclopedia Britannica Yearbook 1981, I’ve quietly argued that in political
contexts the term “the New Christian Right” should be used in place of
“Evangelicals,” which is what the public media have chosen to use—and which
they regularly misuse. The “Christian Right,” then as now, I wrote, spoke only
for “a minority of evangelical, fundamentalist, and Pentecostal Protestantism,”
and included some “Roman Catholics, who shared some of the New Christian
Right’s viewpoint,” especially against abortion. That “minority,” of course,
has since grown. Why Pastors Dread Talking About Money
Stewardship programs and pastors don’t mix any better than oil and water. The way it’s put by many ecclesial stewardship and mission promoters is that preachers have a perennial problem talking to parishioners about money. Contrary to conventional wisdom, I think that a better stewardship program is not the answer to this problem; nor will it be resolved by motivational talks to pastors about why they ought to talk stewardship with their people. The answer lies rather in morality and ethics. Actually, I don’t know whether or not it would be
factually accurate to claim that preachers don’t talk much about money. It seems
to me that in my own sermons and those of my pastors, we have not infrequently
addressed financial and material concerns. There is a good biblical case to be
made for doing so. Depending on how and what one counts, I’m told there are
somewhere between 800 and 2500 biblical references to wealth and poverty. Many
such sayings are attributed to Jesus (who, in contrast, seems not to have said
one thing about homosexuality). Surely we ought to be preaching and teaching
about the things Jesus taught also, as well as on issues of biblical concern.
Let’s Kill
the Death Penalty The U.S. Supreme Court has relieved the nation of the considerable international embarrassment of being just about the only nation that still executed juveniles, but that welcome progress still begs the larger question of the death penalty itself. In recent years, the high court has been tiptoeing back toward that core issue in small steps. In 1988, it barred the execution of juveniles under 16. Three years ago, it ended the execution of the mentally retarded. It now is barring the execution of 16 and
17 year olds, the court relied on the “evolving standards of decency”
measurement that it has applied to such matters for the last 50 years but also,
as it did in the issue of retardation, cited international practices. Since
1990, the seven other nations that still executed juveniles have abandoned the
practice. A Letter to
Fellow Baptists Dear colleagues and friends, There is considerable talk these days about biblical authority and soul freedom and their relationship to each other; I would like to offer some brief reflections on this from my life experience and study. Both biblical authority and soul freedom
have been Baptist distinctives since our beginnings
in the early 1600s; most Baptists have treasured and nurtured these commitments
over the centuries in many different contexts. CHRISTIAN ETHICS AND THE MOVIES Earthcare:
An Inconvenient Truth (2006) Documentaries are quintessential social texts. Although they are movies, they are not just entertainment. Documentaries are nonfiction and journalistic in intent. They mean to inform us and persuade us to take decisive actions. Primarily concerned with conveying information or advocacy, they always try to incorporate as much cinematic interest as possible into their messages. An
Inconvenient Truth is a secular sermon about saving the environment. The movie
opened in late May, 2006, on a limited number of screens and grossed less than
$500,000 for the weekend, but over 200 reviews were published that ranged from
74 percent favorable (Metacritic.com) to 91 percent favorable (rottentomatoes.com).
Political commentaries have been slower to come forth, but Al Gore commented
with bemusement that even Bill O’Reilly seemed to approve of his message. Word
of mouth is working: an estimated three million people had attended the movie
by August, 2006; and as of that date, it is still in distribution and attendance
seems to be holding its own. CHRISTIAN ETHICS AND THE MOVIES Christmas Eve: Joyeux Noël (2005) Joyeux
Noël is a foreign film made in France, UK, Germany, and Romania. It was
nominated as Best Foreign Film for an Oscar and for a Golden Globe. It is
unambiguously anti-war. More than that, it is a story of the transcendence of
the spirit of Christ over war in a certain time and place in history. On
Christmas Eve, 1914, at several points along the front, the field commanders on
both sides declared a temporary cease-fire. They did so to celebrate Christmas
together in the no-man’s land that lay between their trenches. A bloody,
brutal, hand-to-hand battle previously raged between them for two months. POETRY
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