cairns

I haven’t written about the natural magic of fall on here for a while.  Figure my volcano piece has already been done.

But, this fall we did it again.  We looked around and said, “There just hasn’t been enough rain, it will be a brown fall without much color.”  Then Fall came anyway.  The yellows and oranges are brilliant with some hardy reds.  To be sure there is plenty of brown in some areas.  But, it makes the tree which has burst into full color stand out all the more.  And, my own neighborhood has been absolutely blazing with glory.

Now the leaves are coming down.  My yard is a “mess” thanks to the rains coming right after the leaf fall.  But, I love it all.  The street is full of leaves and I love driving through them in my little car as much I as I used to love blasting through them on my bike.  It is a pre-snow transformation from solid concrete and hard edges to natural blurs and complexities that dance and whirl.

And in the woods last weekend alone, the pure pleasure of the soft crunch beneath my feet was exhilarating.  Life that had soared into the air through tiny veins of wood, was returning to the soil enriched by sun, air, and water.  I marvel at the loudness of a single leaf somersaulting down through the trees when there is no machine noise pollution to mask its passing.  Every part of life’s cycle has a beauty and fall is still a favorite of mine.  I rank it right up there with Spring, Summer, and Winter!

11/20  This week the reds came on strong.  The trees that fill the middle of the boulevard coming into my neighborhood lit up like British soldiers on parade.  Then today, snow flakes, lots of snow flurries whirling everywhere melting almost before touching the ground, added to the picture.  I saw serious faced “how am I ever going to reach these kids” teachers turn giddy with the pure delight of the spectacle.  I do love life in four seasons.

peace

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Left right after school Friday for the Hoosier National Forest.  Two nights with just me, trees, wind, a few birds, lots of quiet, a little campfire, and time to not think.  No music, no writing, a little reading, some praying, noproblems to solve, a little hiking, no elections to win, just me sitting alone in the woods.  Temps just above freezing meant the few families that went to the camp area I chose camped on a loop with electricity.  I was in a campground for the ease of car camping, but completely by myself.  I have no great thoughts to write.  It was a beautiful time to be, just be, in creation.  It was good.  peace

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You want to stop or decrease abortions?  Give the mother a hope and a future for herself and her unborn.  That is an important start.  Let Mom know that the country she lives in has a place for her and her child, a good life worth bringing a child into, worth the effort of raising them to join us as a citizen in a great experiment of human potential.  That is part of what last night was about and it is part of the answer.

You want to decrease abortions? Start teaching our young people that it is not OK to seek pleasure without regard to consequences.  Sex makes babies, but our culture has treated it like a playground for slightly older and less responsible children.  Call Americans to lives of thoughtful responsibility.  An attitude of considering the worth of yourself, your actions, and the effect on the other party will go much further for decreasing abortion than any law or sermon of damnation.  That is part of what last night was about, and it is part of the answer.

You want to decrease abortions? Shout out the value of every person and stop dehumanizing your enemy.  John McCain did that last night and did it very well.  Indeed, if America had seen the face and heard the voice of the man who gave last night’s concession speech instead of the image manufactured by an attack campaign, this election might have gone completely the other way.  In our deepest disagreements remember that the Republican Ronald Reagan was famous for calling people to agree without being disagreeable.  If we want life to be valued, then we must value each other most when we have the courage to disagree.  Last night John McCain did that as well, and it is part of the answer.

peace

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I hope I can discuss the election with my young students without crying today.

Forty years ago the young people of my generation gathered in Grant Park demanding a voice in the nation’s future and the end of a hopeless war.  The Democrats were in charge of the city.  They came out in force and beat our heads in.  Then they rounded up those they considered to have been leaders and put them on trial.  The iconic image of a black man from that moment in US history is Bobby Seal bound and gagged in the court room for demanding a separate trial.

But, last night, oh my last night, praise God hallelujah!  A cross section of America including many many young first time voters stood in Grant Park again and celebrated victory!  They celebrate the victory of a message of hope over cynicism, a message that America can be what we tell the world we are, a message that we can come together and be one people.  Yesterday was my Camelot.  For a least one shining moment we all, including a very eloquent John McCain, proclaimed that we can still be a place of hope and promise.

What the movement of 68 lacked was the Internet.  The opposition should have paid less attention to Obama’s being friends with a Weatherman and more to the parent organization of the Weathermen, the SDS.  Last night grass roots democracy, funded by amazing numbers of 5 and 10 dollar donations, daring to proclaim that everybody matters, took the presidency of the United States — led by a black man unbound, speaking the truth the Civil Rights Movement has proclaimed for a generation through so much pain and tears.  We are all Americans and we can, yes we can.  I wept.

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Help me think through what a full pro-life Christian position would look like.

I know and have pointed out to many people that I heard Francis Schaeffer in person declare at the beginning of the pro-life movement that no church or pastor should claim to stand with him unless they were willing to fully commit to supporting the life of the child and the mother after birth with whatever means it required until the child reached adult independence. But, I think we would need to go far beyond that.

So far I am thinking first that it has to include all people in all places having divine significance.  How can we devalue women and claim their unborn have inalienable rights?  How can we ignore millions of preventable deaths yearly among the poor, and yet claim those not yet born cannot be violated?

But, I think we would have to go even further.  I think we would have to start with the sanctity and worth of all life.  The Bible says God notices a sparrow that falls and how the grass of the fields is dressed.  That may be poetic, but truth often is.  If life is holy, then why not all of life?

I don’t think I would/could take it to the extreme Buddhist position.  Even the Dalai Lama says a total vegetarian diet made him ill and he gave it up.  I am thinking more along the lines of respect one finds in more primitive societies toward the animal that gives its life to sustain ours.  I haven’t read enough to be fully conversant in the authors who go back to Genesis to proclaim the divinity of creation, but I think it is something along those lines.

If we want people to accept the unborn human as sacred, I think we have to begin to articulate more clearly the divinity of all life.

I think we have to stop attacking and dehumanizing our opponents on whatever issues.

I think we would have to seriously examine our views on war and capital punishment if we want to claim that no human life can be taken in order to satisfy our aims.

I think we have to examine how far our respect for life extends to the non-human as well.

So, help me think it through further.

What might a real pro-life position call us to do, to give up, to change, to articulate, to honor, to live?

peace

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Just watched a supposedly “non-partisan” video on my church’s web page about voting the issues tomorrow. OK, that was a dumb move to start with because I knew what it would be and knew I would be offended.  I did write a note about it directly to the church leadership before doing this rant which will be read by folks who have no control, or will never even darken the door of the place.

It implied that the the rights of the unborn and the definition of marriage for us and our children hinges on Christians choosing the right person tomorrow.  It was pure Republican in every way but having an RNC endorsement attached.

And yet the President of the United States decides neither of these.  After decades of pro-life and pro-family Bushes and a Reagan, we still have abortion rights and my daughter lost all government assistance for either her or her daughter the second she got married.  Supposedly, I can control the court to do the “right” thing by always voting for Republicans for President.  So, I looked up the Supreme Court record.

Reagan and the two Bushes have successfully placed eight justices on the Supreme Court and the situation remains unchanged.

How long can this party keep claiming people’s votes on this single issue when they have not and cannot change it when they are in power?

As long as we let them would be my answer to my own question.

As for me, don’t tell me you are pro-family and remove all government help the second a single mother chooses to marry the baby’s father.  Do not tell me you are pro-life when you are also pro-war, anti health care for the poor, anti-education which would help to prevent unwanted pregnancies, indifferent to the plight of all people and life that is not “us,” and anti-policies that would provide a living wage to workers. Don’t even imply that there is a holy choice when the nominee of the party which claims to support your issues is a man who first cheated on and then divorced his wife after she was injured and had become less attractive to him.  Please don’t tell me Jesus wants me to vote for the party that openly states their preference for improving the future by favoring the rich.  I do not believe He ever said anything of the sort.

I do not believe that the Democrats have any magic answers either.  I do not begrudge you your preference if you vote Republican.  I just wish church people would quit using the Bible to beat up anyone who disagrees with their choice!

Jesus did not tell his followers to form or support political parties, in fact he rejected all offers to make his mission a political one in any traditional sense.  He told us to love God and our neighbor as our self.  He told us to forgive as He forgives, and to love as He loves.  He told us to carry the message of His saving work to all people.  Those are what the church is supposed to be about.  Meanwhile the western church spends its resources on itself and brags if we send more than 5% of our money to the 90% of the world which is unchurched.  We have too much wrong inside our own house to be throwing stones at anybody.

OK, I feel a little better now.

peace

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Still thinking about all these issues of leadership, another thought from the Old Testament narrative strikes me.  Very rarely did the people hear the words of God from the king in the palace.  Far more often the voice of God came from those strange prophetic voices arriving from the wilderness.  Maybe God does more direct talking to people from the fringe than from power no matter who wins?

By the time of the New Testament, Jesus seems to have little interest in the political leaders of the day.  Preceded by the last of the wilderness wild-men prophets, He calls us directly to the Kingdom of God rather than men.  Looks to me like he is far more interested in the fishermen, mothers, lepers, widows, possessed, adulterers, and children than any of those who sat in positions of power.  Theirs is the Kingdom.  Our task  is to reach upward to God and outward to His people.  Perhaps that is how we render unto God what is God’s while we do our duty and vote as best we can, then pray for whoever wins in order to render unto Caesar?

peace

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K’s comments below are wells aid and well taken.  Personally I find one of the worst faults of our current society is vilifying and ridiculing whoever wins.  It seems like to rise to any position of leadership in this country is to invite relentless criticism and attach regardless of which side of the aisle you are from.  No matter what else the Bible portions I was referring to say, they call for respect for leaders.  I don’t believe its blind obedience like the old divine right kings wanted, or to a Hitler.  But we rip apart everybody.

So I pray for strength and wisdom for whoever wins.  I pray for their personal safety in our world of murderous nuts.  I pray for restraint as commanders of so much destructive power, and generosity as overseers of a nation of such bounty.

But, I do not believe politics will lead us back to God.  Heck, we aren’t even following the church back to God.  I believe that is a matter far beyond the realm of American politics.  To put or hope (or despair) in the results of the election, is to create human idols.  Our hope is in God alone.  And despair is not an option within my view of His sovereignty.

The strange thing with the lists is this:  I agree with the pastor’s list too!  I don’t think anybody in the right mind is actually pro-abortion any more than they are pro-fratricide or animal cruelty.  I like conservative judges on the Supreme Court, etc.  It is all just far more complicated than that.  neither party is stupid enough to run on a platform Americans would consider all evil.  Neither is either party completely sold out to doing what is “right,” the western church would never be able to assemble the list if they asked because good people come to different conclusions.  My beef with him is making any partisan statement  in the place of worship.  I would not be pleased if he seemed to be endorsing my guy either.

But, I met and spoke with Francis Schaeffer at the beginning of the pro-life movement and he was very clear to the pastors at that gathering.  Only a position which requires love and support of the mother and child until both are able to function independently in society is truly a pro-life position.  So, they just cannot tally up my vote by slapping on that bumper sticker when the president will not change it regardless.  If we are going to change it, we must change the hearts of our society.  We must turn peoples hearts back to God and His way of living and value of all life.  We must turn away from instant gratification without consequences in many areas of life.  Those are not political solutions.  They require consistent loving Christian witness from us the Church.

peace

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“until he acknowledged that the Most High God is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and sets over them anyone he wishes.”

I am still in the process of escaping my supposed literalist (literalistic on anything that favored us and damned others) past.  So, my musings on today’s brief political statement also set me to wondering about the nature of our treasured system of democracy in the light of passages like this one that say the establishment of rulers is God’s business.

Does our cherished democracy set up a false belief that we humans decide who will be in power?

Is our supposedly empowering democracy a more recent version of the casting of lots to see who has already been chosen?

Or most heretical of all, does our democracy give God a less bloody method for conducting His business?

peace

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With the election upon us, the pastor did his, “do your duty to God and country” closing this morning.  He encouraged people to go to the poles and prayerfully vote based not on campaign appeal, but issues.  And he gave a list, ‘abortion, selection of Supreme Court Justices, definition of marriage.’  It was the most biased thing I have heard him say even though I know the congregation is filled with conservative Republicans.  I was a little disappointed and had to remind myself that I know where I am when I choose to walk in those doors.  So, mostly to make myself feel like I got some kind of equal time, here is my list.

Pro-life after birth,

Pro-peace,

Most likely to fulfill the Biblical imperative to care about the poor,

Focused on the future and hope,

Able to voice the call to become better than we are (you know like the best of what Ronald Reagan had to offer from their side!),

Able to be a symbol of hope at home and abroad because America finally chooses someone other than one more old white man.  Yup, there is twisted racism in my vote.  Race is one of the issues for me.  It is time to affirm the other.

peace

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