mccain takes on wauseon


and assimilates kevin smith clark.

overheard: trickle-down justice

this evening i ran across this excellent piece by steve holt. give it a read.

"A friend of mine and I ate breakfast together today at our favorite cafe, as we do every week. Our part of the neighborhood is seeing an influx of young, urban professionals — “climbing the professional ladder,” as my friend put it. Broadly speaking, these folks are well-educated and left-leaning, with entrepreneurial personalities. They know how to have a good time, and local shindigs — beer dinners, meet-and-greets, and other social events — are frequent.

There seems to be a disconnect, though, in the lip service paid to acts of justice / social action and the direct work they do with their hands. (the mentoring, the tutoring, the serving) I could be missing it altogether, but I haven’t seen it. Lack of time seems to be a major factor here.

But almost unanimously, these folks will vote on Tuesday for Obama, whom they believe has the best policies to help the poor. But with the apparent lack of direct service with the disenfranchised, you might call their social philosophy “trickle-down justice.” Read More

overheard: ablevision celebrates five years, numerous awards

"It started with an idea: Produce a television show filmed by people with disabilities. Five years later, the idea has grown into the multiple award-winning Ablevision program, which celebrated its 20th episode at Anthony’s in Malden with nearly 400 people in attendance.

“The greatest honorees were our cast and crew,” said Jeff Gentry, community relations director at Rectangle in Medford. “They arrived in stretch white limos. There were paparazzi flashing pictures. It was a lot of fun — everything from the red carpet entry to the show.”

read the rest of the medford transcript's article here.

being a blessing

the mission of the gathering is to "be a blessing to the city of salem." yesterday, my friend ryan chandler and i pursued this mission by stripping down to our boxers, monking up, scrawling "blessed are the poor" on a sign, holding a wooden cross aloft and offering free blessings* to anyone and everyone who was interested.

after our first couple of times padding down essex street generated only two blessings, we decided to make our offer more overt. so we went back into the gathering space, scrawled "free blessings" on a second piece of cardboard and headed back into the streets.

the rest of the afternoon was nothing short of remarkable. we had the opportunity to bless women who had just been told they were "hexed" with negative energy, we blessed a family of asian tourists in exchange for their request for a picture, we blessed homosexuals in vampire drag, a group of seven witchy women from sweden and the street preacher who tacks horrible depictions of hell on his a-frame, wears buttons that proclaim "Jesus hates obama" and attends nearly every event of any size in the greater boston area.

if i were to venture a guess, i'd say fifty percent of the individuals really wanted to be blessed, thirty percent expected a joke but got caught up in the moment, twenty ten were merely curious and ten percent were fulfilling a dare. i didn't keep count, but i'm pretty sure that we blessed a couple of hundred of people over the course of the the afternoon. moreover, i'm certain that ryan, pastor phil** and i were the primary beneficiaries of the blessing.

never before has Jesus command to "bless those who curse you,*** bless and do not curse" and henri's oft stated reminder that just like Jesus we are "God's beloved in whom he is well pleased," meant so much to me.

i'm finding it really hard to put the power of this experience into words. if you'd like to know more about it, feel free to join me in offering "free blessings" this weekend in salem.

* each of us offered blessings in our own way. phil blessed people with words of encouragement and, what appeared to me to be, words of insight while ryan and i usually blessed people with a form of the following blessing that i wrote yesterday morning: 'may our feet lead you to beauty, may your hands spark with creativity, may your mind be renewed. in the name of the creator, the liberator and the muse.'
** who joined me for the last hour and took the opportunity to bless visitors, ferrets and many people he already knew in salem
*** i quote this verse not because (many) people were cursing us or because i believe we were being persecuted for our faith. it's just the scripture that i kept thinking about time and again throughout the day. the real test of whether i've submitted to this command will be if, and when, our friends from repent america walk our streets later this week.

just wondering...
by: pixie

You know how all those young teen couples that find themselves pregnant and claim, "We only had sex that one time. We swear." and a lot of us wonder at the odds of every teen couple getting impregnated the very first time.* You also know how sometimes Scripture mentions one instance as representative of multiple instances? Well, all this makes me wonder about the story of Lot & his daughters**. First, how drunk do you have to be to NOT know you're having sex with your daughter and if you are that drunk does the equipment still work? Second, how does this happen again with the 2nd daughter? And finally, how possible is it that both girls got knocked up the very first time? I know they were scheming to get pregnant but do you really think that the ancient Israelites had the ovulation/menstruation schedule down to a medical science? I doubt they were saying to each other, "Hey, I'm ovulating today. Let's get Dad drunk!" Maybe they did but is there also a possibility that Scripture just mentions the one time as representative of the whole? Just saying.....

*Granted recent films such as Knocked Up & Juno support this idea....
**I have to say that this Bible story perplexes me more than many others.

a quick thought

last night i told a local minister, my wife and a close friend that my tradition often uses altar calls. in fact, in my childhood a church service wouldn't have been complete without one.

i also told the group, probably with more pride than i would like to admit, that i have never offered a traditional altar call, but i have offered opportunities for christians to react to the call of reconciliation, to bury their hatchets with their brothers and sisters and get on with the mission of Christ.

now that i think of it, i may have offered an altar call or to when i was doing supply preaching in little churches throughout central illinois. but i'm getting off point.

what i unexpectedly realized in the midst of this brief conversation with the aforementioned crew, is that if the altar call focuses solely on calling those outside the church to repent of their sin and come in, and if no corresponding imperative of equal or greater force is placed upon the confessional, cruciform community during the same service, then i think the altar call is a cowardly device that focuses attention on the perceived deficits of those outside of the community and so enables the community to ignore its own inability to walk in the way of Jesus.

that being said, i think that calls to action, altar calls and the like have a place within the confessing community. however, i think that most of these imperatives should be aimed at those of who have chosen to follow instead of those who dwell outside or on the margins of our community.

epitaph: they went for this...political bullshit about narratives



although peggy noonan's comment was in response to the palin selection, the same could be said about joe the plumber. you'd think that mccain would have discarded this poorly researched, dang near catastrophic illustration by now. but no, he's still prattling on about the unlicensed, tax dodging, duplicitous plumber.

for such a smart man, mccain sure is running a stupid campaign.

set aside your anxiety by serving others

i'm starting to suspect that during this season of economic distress the best way to fight anxiety is to serve others.

one concrete way you can serve during this season is by dedicating a small portion of your food budget to a local food pantry. beverly bootstraps, our local food pantry, has seen demand increase exponentially over the past couple of months. bootstraps receives tons of community donations, but the volume of donations has not kept pace with local need. check out the figures below:

from january to june 2007 bootstraps purchased $7,339 worth of extra food in order to meet local demand.

from january to june 2008 bootstraps had to purchase $19,647 worth of extra food in order to meet local demand.

i suspect that 95% of you can dedicate at least $10 of your food budget to purchasing bread, cereal and non-perishable goods to your local food pantry. please don't miss this opportunity to fight anxiety by serving your neighbors.

mid-morning time waster

palin as president.

be sure to click on everything.

plagiarize this

at last night's cohort meeting we welcomed a pastor and first time attender named jeff. at some point in the evening he mentioned that during last sunday's sermon he told the congregation to take a moment and take a good, long look at the people around them because:

"the people you see are your social security. in times of economic hardship and strife our real dependence is not upon the government, but upon each other."

that really struck a cord with me. what a creative way to challenge people to set aside their fear in order to trust God and one another.

Hijacked by Pixie

Last night it was suggested by a friend that Jeff bore a close enough resemblance to Matisyahu to shed his monk's robes and don a beard for Halloween.





What do you think?

overheard

today's slate has an interesting article that explores signs of revitalization in catholic religious life. it's good to hear of new communities such as the clear creek monastery that are able to do more than geriatric care.

in related news, this weekend as i donned a pre-fab habit in order to call, entice and cajole people to attend death by chocolate i couldn't help but realize that i have become something i once denounced. namely, someone who embroiders his internal life on his sleeve.

i cannot tell you how many times i have ridiculed goths and punks for expressing their protest through costly fashion trends. now i eagerly wrap myself in the garb i would have liked to have lived, if marital privileges and mlb all access had been included with the bargain.

i hope that one of these days i can find a form of condemnation that does lead to retribution.

awesome*

david plotz muses on hollywood apocalyptic, n.r.a. overcompensation and the identity of latter day wolverines!

if red dawn plagued your dreams as a child or you just can't get enough of c. thomas howell chugging blood, be sure to check out today's slate.



* rick bennett also supports this message.

so this weekend

i had the privilege of co-leading an event called "death by chocolate" at the salem gathering.

simply stated, the event gave people the opportunity to taste delicious, fair-trade chocolate and introduced our guests to the story of chaga, a young boy who was enslaved on the cocoa fields of the ivory coast.

after devouring the chocolate and listening to chaga's story, guests were offered information about the current slavery epidemic (studies suggest that 15% of cocoa field workers are child slaves and a terrifying large proportion of young girls engaged in the sex trade are enslaved as well) and were offered suggested steps for further action.

over 400 people attended the event and we're hoping it inspired a couple of dozen to start buying free trade products and incited a future abolitionist or two as well.

all and all, it was an amazing weekend! many thanks to anita coco and the not-for-sale boston crew for making this weekend happen. thank you for inviting me along for the ride!

file under: sweeping generalizations

this evening, while reading the crunchy con blog, i ran across the following quote from peter suderman concerning "why the republicans are so bad at communicating."

"One of the major problems with the contemporary right, broadly speaking, is that when it comes to communication, it's good at manipulation, but it's not very good at conversation. That makes it fairly effective when it comes to TV ads and speeches, which are one-way broadcast mediums. That's great for telling people what to do, and the GOP, especially in the Rove era, has become masterful at figuring at ways -- usually involving fear, of change, of the other, of political enemies -- to tell people what to do in ways that will actually get them to follow instructions."

now read the quote again, but substitute the term "conservative evangelicalism" for "contemporary right" and "the GOP."

maybe it's just me, but i find the critique fits both the GOP and much of evangelicalism quite well. the second part of the critique, which i've posted below, seems to apply to both groups also:

"But it's borderline catastrophic when it comes to new media, which emphasizes networked interactivity -- which is where the left, online or off, seems to shine. Part of this is the way the right appeals to authority while the left appeals to community. The left's infrastructure has always (and unremarkably) emphasized communal action -- whether in 60s and 70s anti-war protests or in Alinsky-style community organizing . It also has a lot to do with modern conservatism's trouble with doubt: For decades, the right has had trouble with ambiguity (Postmodern Conservatism doesn't seem strange for no reason), and systems without authority and hierarchy -- systems like the web -- are inherently ambiguous."

i'm not trying to throw bombs here. i just think that suderman's critiques are worth considering.

ht: rod dreher

in celebration of disability employment month

musing...

i have always been particular about my pens. when i was in high school i preferred the uniball onyx micro in blue. everything from my indexed notes on the religious right to the d-quality homework for geometry class was scratched with the exacting point of the onyx pen.

shortly after entering college i developed a penchant for the uniball vision .7mm in black. this medium point, ink profusive pen enabled me to write boldly about my narcissistic struggles with identity, indifference concerning the early or late date of the exodus and my first simplistic, essay inspired sermons.

fortunately late in college, while on a bus bumbling through southern europe, trent seggelke introduced me to the black pilot g-2 .7mm pen. the g-2 produced a line almost as bold as the vision, but it also featured a refillable cartridge and a protective rubber grip. unfortunately the g-2 did not follow the vision by including a clear, plastic, color coded top that was easy to pop off, chew on and suction stick to my inner lip, but in general i considered it an exceptional tool. thus, as the g-2 graveyard in my desk attests, this pen received my unswerving allegiance for the past nine years. i have written completely forgettable exegesis papers and sermons with the g-2, stroked love notes to my former girlfriend and current, remarkably gracious and eternally forbearing, wife, and penned brilliant copy for the faith of george w. bush that produced thousands of dollars in sales for lightway.com.

throughout the years my signature pen has changed, but my penchant for ink has not. i can still remember professor johnson bemusedly remarking that i always completed my greek homework in pen as though i was certain my answers were correct.

i'm not so certain anymore.

in the past few weeks, i've set aside the pen and picked up a pencil, any pencil, that allows me to render my halting, half-believed sentences with an instrument that encourages revision and suggests impermanence. as i've grown a little older my confidence in my assertions, which i've always presented with more certainty than i ever felt, has waned and inking my shifting thoughts and unbelieving beliefs has started to seem a bit hypocritical and very impractical.*

all this is not to say that i am without hope or am ashamed of the gospel that i eagerly serve. i simply realize that life requires an eraser and little that i say is worthy of permanence.

* as attested by the six pair of inked pants that are currently crammed into the corners of my closet

too funny

if you support "that one" for president, you can pick up your new gear here.

oh wait, no they didn't. it looks like christmas came early this year!
in times of nagging uncertainty it's good to know that some things never change.

a good night*

the cubs are well on their way to a three and out and friday night lights finally returned to form after a miserable second season.

i won't say much about the cubs getting man-rammed since you can catch the highlights either on the tube or online.

however, as much as i am ashamed to admit it, i am as excited about fnl's revitalization as i was about the final season of the wire. week one featured a blessed return to culturally distressed, football-centric dillon, where quarterbacks lead the most plausible subversions of the status quo, family values fail to escape the election booth and the natural light flows like wine. after a year filled with licentious cna's, murdered lechers and the odd john irving references, the show has once again made a believer** out of me. god bless texas.

* please note: this post will only interest my three readers who watch fnl, have direct tv and/or love to hate the scrubs.
** and, admittedly, a little bit of a doubter as well. questions raised during week one: when is the revitalized oil industry going to revitalize dillion? i don't think that they're importing saudi's to man those derricks that are popping up from tulsa to abilene. billy should already have a job. how does a woman, in west texas, transition from guidance counselor to high school principal? i mean, has this ever happened in recorded history? ever!? where the hell is street and is his, probably not aborted, child as hideous as baby taylor? how did lyla set aside casting crowns and curb her focus on the family man? did she curb him american history x style under the portico at the mega-church? if so, i hope the church's security camera captured the footage. did the galoot graduate? if so, something tells me he didn't get into dillon tech. did applebee's cancel their sponsorship? i can't think of a better way to advertise a shitty american chain than by making it the hub of a shitty american town.