c. 2006 Religion News Service
The Verse: "A nation led by a woman shall not prosper."
The Context: This verse is part of a longer hadith, or narration about the life of Muhammad, recounting the story of how a Persian king executed one of the Islamic prophet's messengers, sparking his anger against the empire. Muhammad made the statement after the king died and his daughter became ruler.
c. 2006 Religion News Service
Advocacy groups are pressuring Congress to take broader action to alleviate the plight of refugees who have been caught in a tangle of new regulations designed to keep terrorists from entering the United States.
Refugee Council USA, which includes numerous faith-based organizations, estimates that as many as 20,000 refugees worldwide are being denied asylum in the United States because their activities fall within broad new U.S. definitions of helping terrorist organizations. Many of the refugees, from countries like Myanmar, Colombia, Liberia, and Cuba, are living in refugee camps in other countries.
The Presbyterian Publishing Corp. -- responding to criticisms of a new book it has published that asserts American military and political leaders were involved with planning the 9/11 attacks -- issued a news release Aug. 11 stating that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) does not endorse the claims the book makes.
The controversial book -- Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11: A Call to Reflection and Action -- was written by David Ray Griffin, a retired professor of philosophy and theology at Claremont School of Theology in California.
Since its publication by Westminster John Knox Press earlier this summer, Griffin's book has riled up Presbyterians who have argued that Westminster shouldn't have published the book and that it is bringing more trouble down on an already divided, declining denomination.
What the world needs now ... yes, is love, sweet love.
But what the world also needs now ... is some Presbyterian, intelligent, paradoxical, ambivalent, nuanced thinking.
What IS Presbyterian, intelligent, paradoxical, ambivalent, nuanced thinking?
Let's start by contracting that into an acrostic: PIPAN. PIPAN thinking is the ability to see issues in multifaceted ways without losing one's mind in the process. It can hold together affirmations that at least appear to be contradictory and yet are true only if each affirmation is retained.
For example, PIPAN thinking affirms that God is one, and that God is three.
PIPAN thinking affirms that Jesus is fully human, and that Jesus is fully divine.
It proclaims that God is totally sovereign, and that humans are held responsible for their thoughts, words, and deeds.
When I think of the classical Nicene marks of the church, I tend to think of four immovable inscriptions pointing to intimidating standards: "One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic." Somehow these marks seem very distant and removed from our church life. Pondering these marks we need to be reminded that the life of the church is rooted in the Triune God whose life is not marked by immovable, petrified divinity but by shocking, self-giving, other-embracing grace as revealed through the life, death, and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God does not exist in some kind of divine solitary isolation. The very heart of the divine life is community, the relationship of mutual self-giving love between the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Dynamic images of a dance rather than that of rigid hierarchy better expresses this understanding. The Triune God becomes the model for the life of the church. It, then, ought not be a hierarchical, self-seeking institution, but a community of self-giving and loving people, called, gathered, and shaped by the Triune God.
© 2006. Used by permission.
BARRANQUILLA, Colombia--While accompaniment of Latin Americans by North Americans is generally understood to protect bodies threatened by illegal armed groups and berserk military strategies, people here say it is equally good for the soul.
"We probably won't know what the changes are within ourselves until we look back, but it is impossible to come here and not be changed," says 27-year-old Traci Smith of Batavia, Ill., and a spring graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, who is ending six weeks of accompaniment of threatened church human rights workers this week.
She's sitting in the rain-soaked courtyard of the Presbyterian secondary school here, where a spectacular thunderstorm has abruptly soiled an outdoor dance, one event amidst the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia (PCC). The storm turned the city's concrete streets into gullies and cut the electricity in this middle-class neighborhood, where the school has operated for more than 100 years.
In the waning hours of the 217th General Assembly--the last morning, when nothing much of substance is brought to a tired bunch of commissioners ready to put their packed bags onto planes go home after an intense eight days--former moderator Rick Ufford-Chase rose to the microphone for a point of personal privilege. He had lain awake troubled by one statement the Assembly had approved and that concerned a matter close to his heart: borders. Most people know of Ufford-Chase's heart-felt work in Border Links. We have heard the stories of desperate people risking, and sometimes losing, their lives just for the opportunity to work in the U.S. so their families in impoverished areas of Mexico might live.
Circus-goers munching on pink cotton candy watch their favorite performing animals. At center ring, elephants saunter in, doing some heavy prancing as each links its trunk to a mate's tail ahead, lumbering in a circle. With music blaring, a trainer tosses them treats for standing on their hind legs. Sometimes, these gargantuan animals of the Midway are decked out with lacey pink sashes around their necks. How harmless and lovable they appear.
In the wild where elephants may become savage, a safari guide sternly warns tourists not to get near them. A charging bull elephant on the rampage is a killer beast.
Preachers recognize an elephant has invaded sanctuaries as it monopolizes every sector in national life. The elephant is the war in Iraq.
Preachers who desire longevity in their pulpits intentionally avoid mentioning the elephant. They fear pointing their gospel guns at the war, lest parishioners get upset and leave. Worse, disgruntled worshippers possess power to give a minister who preaches the "whole counsel of God" a pink slip.
This is a tough movie to sit through. "Intense" is an understatement. It brings back all the horror, puzzlement, and shock of 9/11, and then it becomes oh, so personal.
John McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage) begins this day like any other: awake at 3:30 a.m., he stumbles to get dressed in the dark without waking his sleeping wife (Maria Bello). He quietly looks in on his four children, all snug in their beds, before he takes the George Washington Bridge into the City, where he works as a Port Authority policeman. He's a veteran sergeant. He sees himself as a true professional: someone who rarely smiles, who is all business. He thinks that a certain amount of distance from his men is necessary for them to maintain proper respect for his rank."
Three recent developments have been of particular importance for efforts to uphold the rule of law and end the scandal of U.S.-sponsored torture and abuse in detention facilities abroad.
The first is the epoch-making Supreme Court decision, handed down at the end of June, in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. The Court ruled that the president is not authorized to create special military tribunals to conduct the trials of Guantanamo detainees. These tribunals failed to meet minimum standards of fairness as required under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, or in a federal district court. Creating tribunals with inadequate legal safeguards oversteps the bounds of executive authority.
Now that the dust is beginning to settle on the decisions of this last General Assembly meeting, the meaning of the amended PUP report is finally becoming clear. The Office of the General Assembly (OGA) has published a document called "Constitutional Musings #11 on Examining Officers." Item six of this paper states, "An individual may declare a scruple concerning the appropriateness of a mandatory provision. But a governing body cannot excuse a mandatory provision, for it lacks the power to set aside a provision of the Constitution. However, a candidate may still be ordained or installed so long as she/he is still willing to comply with the mandatory provisions."
Sometimes it's hard to look at the news. What's happening in the world, in places like Lebanon and Israel and Iraq and the Sudan, is often so painful.
And Presbyterians who are serious about wanting peace in the world sometimes don't know what to do.
But as complicated as world politics can be, many Presbyterians do feel an obligation, sometimes a calling, to work for peace and for a more loving and just world. In times of turmoil, what does that look like? What can "ordinary" Presbyterians and congregations do to be peacemakers?
The answer, to some extent, depends on the person. Some are comfortable with quieter involvement, with prayer and reading and discussion, trying to understand. Others feel pulled to action and advocacy. For some Presbyterians, the pain of the world is so strong that it demands that they do something to try to make a difference.
Editor's Note: This article was written for "Seasons" the newsletter of the Presbyterian Church at Tenafly (N.J.) that the Rev. Lindner serves as a parish associate. The church of 400 lies a few miles outside of New York City. Four persons related to the congregation were killed when the World Trade Center Towers collapsed on September 11, 2001.
Five years ago during those terrible days that followed the attack on the World Trade Center, the Children's Ministry Team asked me to meet with a group of our children to discuss with them the events of that day and their feelings. It was September 30, 2001, the second Sunday following 9/11 when I gathered a group of our Sunday School children together.
After we spoke for a few minutes I took out a pad and pen. When talking with groups of children I often make notes of the discussion. I do this partly to record and remember all that children have shared with me. Another reason is to avoid eye contact with children. I find that groups of children will more authentically engage with one another when they do not have adult eye contact for referral about "right" and "wrong" responses.
c. 2006 Religion News Service
Jihaad Abdul-Majid has often found inspiration in the words and deeds of Islam's prophet Muhammad, from his acts of compassion and charity to his counsel that followers treat women fairly and help the poor.
At the same time, other sayings that implied female inferiority and intolerance toward other religions troubled the 23-year-old student at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.
"These issues have pushed me to seek more knowledge," said Abdul-Majid, who recently enrolled in an online course about the hadith, the collected stories of what Muhammad and his closest companions said and did.
Muslims hold the hadith second only to the Quran as a source of Shariah law and personal guidance. For centuries, Muslims have hotly debated the hadith, often coming to vastly different conclusions about what lessons to draw from Muhammad's life.
LOUISVILLE -- Linda Valentine, the new executive director of the General Assembly Council, is working to assemble her new administrative team -- and to reconfigure the pared-down national offices of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
A plan that will be presented to the council at the end of September for its approval calls for the top leadership to be structured with three deputy executive directors (an earlier version of the plan had called for just two). They would be:
· A Deputy Executive Director for Mission.
· A Deputy Executive Director for Shared Services (responsible for information technology, finance, human resources and distribution).
· And a Deputy Executive Director for Communication and Development (responsible for development, communication, mission education and promotion).
There also would be an executive administrator, responsible for a range of activities, including General Assembly coordination, relations with General Assembly agencies and with the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, the Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns and the Advocacy Committee for Women's Concerns.
"Theology After Disaster" is the topic of the inaugural issue of @ this point, an online journal launched last May by the faculty of Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga.
Each issue of @ this point focuses on a particular topic from the perspective of a variety of theological disciplines and includes a lead article, response articles, and teaching resources to guide further discussion.
LOUISVILLE -- The droning voice of an anonymous news anchor is background noise as 75-year-old Salim Sahiouny talks into a sputtering telephone, with only a tenuous connection to a U.S. line.
"Today is the worst day we have passed through until now," he says, speaking from his house in western Beirut, his voice tired and low. "The shelling has been extended to places that were not hit before."
Shells from more than 50 Israeli air raids pummeled Lebanon Thursday night and the night before. Five major bridges linking the north to the capital were blown to smithereens. Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets in Beirut's southern suburbs, asking the population to leave, he says, citing the newscast in the background, his voice ricocheting with shock.
The president of the Supreme Council of the Evangelical Church in Syria and Lebanon, Sahiouny, a Presbyterian pastor, isn't leaving the house or the city, no matter what they say. "To me, it is a matter of principle. I feel," he says, pausing to sigh, "that a pastor stays with the congregation."
Three movies, three very different cosmologies. And all the heroes must risk life and limb to even make it to the end of the story.
The "Miami Vice" television show of the 80s featured "cool" actors playing laconic, iconic homicide detectives in a Miami filled with pastel colors, sun-splashed beaches, and upscale private harbors. Sunglasses required, jacket optional, repartee sparse.
It is good news that the 217th General Assembly approved the production of a new denominational hymnbook by Presbyterian Publishing. Although The Presbyterian Hymnal has been an excellent tool for worship and praise it is sixteen years old and it is time for its retirement. The publication of new hymns and updated arrangements of old favorites will be a welcome complement to the many worship resources already available. The addition of an e-mail version, one that presumably will permit the quick publication of new hymns on a periodic basis, is especially needed. Since many churches now use computers and projectors to display hymns in church, digital versions will be very useful on a weekly basis.
Although most of us enjoy singing well-known hymns that bring back fond memories and awaken the beginnings of faith, we also need composers and poets who will commit themselves to the systematic writing of hymns that are contemporary, as fresh from the oven as daily bread. Most of our hymns refer to outdated concepts and events that young people today find totally foreign to their own experiences. Seldom do we sing spiritual songs that contain references to recent events or current scientific discoveries, much less images of things we take for granted, like cell phones, DVDs, digital cameras, or explorations of outer space.
The following hymn accompanies an article by Earl S. Johnson Jr in the August 28, 2006 issue of the Outlook. (link to Hymns as fresh as daily bread)
Tune: Nun danket alle Gott
6.7.6.7. 6.6.6.6 .
Text: Earl S. Johnson Jr.
The universe is God's, Who framed the whole Creation,
All praises be to God, Who made the constellations.
The distant space reveals, An outline and intent,
Faint blueprint of a plan, Its wonder and extent.
A $1.5 million endowment to establish a faculty chair in Bible will be named in honor of Thomas W. Currie III, dean of Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education at Charlotte, and the four generations of his family who have served as ministers of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church, it was announced recently.
As the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches -- a day that is seared in the nation's memory, and has reconfigured the lives of people from an entire region -- faith-based groups have learned some important lessons.
They understand that the recovery in the Gulf region will take years -- and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is committed to be there.
They have learned the importance of partnership -- of working cooperatively with other faith-based groups and denominations, with government and community groups. They have learned that some groups are better at certain tasks than others -- the PC(USA), for example, is concentrating on the long-term response, on recovery and rebuilding, rather than being first on the scene with food and water.
Katrina drove home that planning and preparation are key, both at the national level and locally -- for this disaster and the next ones to come. One year after Katrina, as a new hurricane season has arrived, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance hopes to teach presbyteries and congregations the importance of having a plan in place for the next hurricane, flood, tornado, or fire.
And Katrina has made it clear that, in tough times, church folk show up. They will drive across the country to sleep in tents or on floors, taking time off from work, bringing tools and Bibles, their pockets stuffed with donations and gift cards for Lowe's or Home Depot. They are retirees and college students. They show up to fix someone's home without caring what race or religion or economic group that person comes from.
Jack Barden joined Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary on September 1 as director of admissions. Barden previously served as pastor of First Church of Fulton, Mo.
Barden received a BA in religion from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn.; an M.div. from Austin Seminary; and a D.min. in preaching from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago.
Tracking the itineraries of volunteers who have gone to the Gulf Coast is like tracking the progress of the recovery effort itself -- from the earliest days of providing for basic survival to more recent efforts to get people back into their homes.
"One of the greatest blessings we could receive is people from all over the country -- Presbyterians from all over the country -- sending work crews and staying in our building," said Cliff Nunn, pastor of First Church in New Orleans.
Volunteers cleaned the sanctuary, put up sheet rock, painted, drained the elevator shaft, and the basement. And when that was done, they started working on the neighborhood.
"We have collaborative relationships with the neighborhood association that we never had before," Nunn said. "We have an Episcopal church down the street that we barely knew existed, that we now have a very good relationship with. ... My whole ministry has been changed," as work groups venture out to rebuild houses of people living all around the church.
Denominational loyalty. Virtue? Or vice?
Like national patriotism, denominational loyalty can engender sacrificial service and arm-in-arm teamwork.
Like national patriotism, denominational loyalty can blind us to our own ignorance, to our glaring mistakes, and especially, to the value and needs of those outside our circle.
On the other hand, denominational disaffection can launch outside-the-box missional creativity. And it can unleash a scorched-earth destruction of vital ministries and of tenderfoot believers.
Funny, but I don't remember our Savior calling for us to be denominational loyalists. But he did seem to promote loyalty of another kind.
One for all and all for one.
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