NorthHaven Church Presents Tapestry of Light, Part 5

The NorthHaven Church Choir in Norman, Oklahoma under the direction of Dr. Mark Lucas perform "Tapestry of Light" by Joseph M. Martin on December 18, 2011. Part Five -- Bethlehem Light and Carols of Celebration.

2010 Census Reveals Decade of Declining Income

Click here for more analysis from the Brookings Institute regarding the 2010 Census.

NorthHaven Church Presents Tapestry of Light, Part 4

The NorthHaven Church Choir in Norman, Oklahoma under the direction of Dr. Mark Lucas perform "Tapestry of Light" by Joseph M. Martin on December 18, 2011. Part Four -- Carols of the Quest and A Celtic Gloria!

Middle Class Toil Index

Chart produced by Robert Frank, Visiting Professor of Business Ethics at New York University.

The index was "constructed to portray the most dramatic element of the middle-class squeeze -- the effort required to rent a house served by a school of average quality. "

NorthHaven Church Presents Tapestry of Light, Part 3

Tapestry of Light, Part Three from Bruce Prescott on Vimeo.

The NorthHaven Church Choir in Norman, Oklahoma under the direction of Dr. Mark Lucas perform "Tapestry of Light" by Joseph M. Martin on December 18, 2011. Part Three -- O Wondrous Night and A Celtic Noel.

NorthHaven Presents Tapestry of Light, Part 2

Tapestry of Light, Part Two from Bruce Prescott on Vimeo.

The NorthHaven Church Choir in Norman, Oklahoma under the direction of Dr. Mark Lucas perform "Tapestry of Light" by Joseph M. Martin on December 18, 2011. Part Two -- An Advent Garden and The Holy Child of Mary.

Part three will be posted tomorrow.

NorthHaven Church Presents Tapestry of Light, Part 1

Additional video will be added each day until Christmas.

NorthHaven Church's Children's Choir Christmas Pageant

NorthHaven Church's Children's Choir Christmas Pageant from Bruce Prescott on Vimeo.

NorthHaven Day School Singers

Prayer Rally at U.S. Rep. Lankford's Office

I am headed to U.S. Representative James Lankford's office this morning to attend a Prayer Rally encouraging Lankford to extend unemployment benefits at this time of dire economic crisis in our country. Here is what I said at the rally this morning:

"But whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth." (1 John 3:17-18 NASV)

It is time to stop giving lip service to our love and concern for the unemployed. We want to see some love in action. We want Rep. Lankford to vote to extend unemployment benefits.

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father,

We are here to pray for those who are out of work -- suffering and anxious about how to feed and clothe and house their families. We know that you are concerned about them. We know that you expect everyone to be concerned about them.

We know that you have given gifts and skills to all your children that should be of benefit to all society. We know that you expect us to create an economy that employs every able bodied person and enables everyone who wants a job to exercise their energy in creative and productive ways.

We confess that the economy that our society has created does not recognize and respect the gifts and skills of all your children. Our society has never had an economy with full employment. Our society has always underutilized the gifts and skills that you have given some of your people. Today, the failures of our economic system are apparent for all who have eyes to see.

We stand before the office of one of our elected leaders – one of those who have been entrusted with the responsibility to see that the economic system we create is fair and just and offers gainful employment to every able bodied person in our land.

Today we lift up James Lankford, Lord. Open his eyes, Lord. Help him see that our economy is skewed to the benefit of the few to the detriment of the many. Open his eyes and enable him to see a system that encourages the 1% to build bigger barns overseas and hoard their wealth in ever bigger banks at home instead of encouraging them to share their wealth with the 99% at home. Help him realize that the policies he supports are enabling the 1% to gain the whole world at the cost of losing their own souls.

In times past, our leaders recognized the injustices that are hardwired into our economic system. In times past, our leaders built a safety net to provide for the needs of those who were unemployed and underemployed. They had empathy and compassion on those who were left out of our flawed -- very flawed -- economic system. But this generation has seen the rise of leaders who knew not FDR. We have leaders who have hardened their hearts against the unemployed and are preparing to dump them in the streets -- hungry and cold.

Open their eyes, Lord. Don’t let them close their eyes and harden their hearts. How can the love of God abide in those who close their hearts to brothers and sisters they clearly perceive to be in need? Open their eyes, Lord. Help them see that we need a bigger safety net for those who are unemployed.

In your name we ask this,

Amen.

Payday Loan APR is Annual Percentage Robbery

Arnold Hamilton, writing for the Urban Tulsa Weekly, wrote an article about our New Baptist Covenant II project regarding payday lending in Oklahoma. He gave it a clever title: Annual Percentage Robbery.

Podcast: Kate Richey Interview

Podcast ( 27MB Mp3) of Dr. Bruce Prescott's 12-4-2011 "Religious Talk" radio interview with Kate Richey, policy analyst with the Oklahoma Policy Institute. We talk about the work of the Oklahoma Policy Institute, about Kate's report on the need for Affordable Credit in Oklahoma, and about payday lending in Oklahoma.

Videocast: Wilford Brown & Bacone College

Wilford Brown & Bacone College from Bruce Prescott on Vimeo.

Video of Wilford Brown & Bacone College that I produced for the New Baptist Covenant II meeting. The video was simulcast by satellite feed and by streaming video from Atlanta on the evening of Friday, November 18.

Payday Lending Statement

The Oklahoma City meeting of the New Baptist Covenant concluded with a press conference to address the predatory nature of payday lending. Here's the statement I gave:

We called this press conference to express our disgust with the exorbitant fees and interest rates that payday lenders are charging the poorest and most disadvantaged members of our community.

We are particularly incensed that Oklahoma Native American tribes are using their “tribal sovereignty” to shield online payday lenders from legislation and litigation that attempts to limit the ability of payday lenders to prey on the poor.

Ancient Israel had a lot stronger regulation on loans than we do. The Mosaic law prohibited charging “your brother” interest and all the tribes of Abraham were blood brothers. For Hebrews it was only permissible to charge interest to “a foreigner.” (Deut. 23:19-20)

The early Christians, considering each other brothers and sisters in Christ, extended the Deuteronomic prohibition against usury to all who shared their faith. Charging interest to even those outside the faith was viewed as a form of theft and harmful.

The great Roman Catholic Theologian Thomas Aquinas, wrote:

The Jews were forbidden to take usury from their brethren, i.e., from other Jews. By this we are given to understand that to take usury from any man is simply evil, because we ought to treat every man as our neighbor and brother.(emphasis mine)

During the Reformation, when the modern economic system began to develop, John Calvin interpreted the scriptures prohibiting usury to forbid only “biting” usury – interest taken from the defenseless poor. He allowed interest bearing loans to be made to brothers and neighbors and made the amount of interest that could be charged a matter of conscience. At that time nobody thought that more than 5% interest was conscionable. In Geneva, those who charged more than 5% interest would lose their principle and would be required to pay a fine.

Over time consciences have become more pliable. In Oklahoma, state law limits the interest rate on personal loans between unlicensed individuals to 10%. Interest rates can exceed 10% if the individual is licensed by the state to make consumer loans.

We are convinced that the interest rates now being permitted to payday lenders are unconscionable. Today, what our forefathers called “biting interest” is commonplace and the “defenseless poor” are being forced to pay the highest interest rates -- rates up to 400% per year. Rates that trap them in debt and put a strain on the benevolent and charitable activities of our churches when they come to us for assistance to provide for the basic necessities they can no longer afford because payday lenders have robbed them of their limited incomes.

Baptists associated with the “New Baptist Covenant” movement are giving notice that we intend to stand firmly against the financial exploitation of disadvantaged members of our community by payday lenders.

We also are giving notice that we intend to work diligently to encourage our state legislators and our business community to create programs, products and policies that will ensure that low income Oklahomans have access to affordable credit.

Interfaith Invocation

A couple people have asked that post the invocation I gave at the Institute of Interfaith Dialog's Friendship Dinner and Awards Ceremony last night. Here it is:

Lord God,

Thank-you for this opportunity to come to the table of fellowship with friends of other faiths.

We are grateful for the relationships we are making with each other and with you.

We acknowledge that you created us, that you sustain us with your loving presence, and that you have brought us together to work together to preserve peace and promote understanding in our communities.

Thank-you for the love and concern of the Institute for Interfaith Dialog and those who organized this gathering and share the vision of an Interfaith Peace Garden.

May your peace be upon them.

Thank-you for the love and concern of those who have come to participate in this time of friendship and fellowship.

May your peace be upon them.

Thank-you for the nourishment that we are about to receive for our bodies and most of all, thank-you for the nourishment we are about to receive for our souls.

We celebrate our diversity today -- knowing that, ultimately, we all pray for the day when the whole world will come together around a common table of fellowship and friendship.

May your peace be upon all humanity.

Amen.

Podcast: Oklahoma Sponsoring Committee Interview

Podcast (27MB Mp3) of Dr. Bruce Prescott's 11-6-2011 "Religious Talk" radio interview with representatives of the Oklahoma Sponsoring Committee. I talk with Melodie Garneau of Mayflower Congregational Church, Doug Holstead of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, Jim Tappan of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, and Lead Organizer Kristen King. We talk about the mission, purpose and social justice work of the Oklahoma Sponsoring Committee.

Preparing for the New Baptist Covenant II

Oklahoma City Meeting of the New Baptist Covenant II

Nov. 17-19, 2011 St. John Missionary Baptist Church in Oklahoma City will host the second ever gathering of the New Baptist Covenant. American Baptists, Cooperative Baptists, Free Will Baptists, Missionary Baptists, National Baptists, Progressive National Baptists, Southern Baptists and other Baptists from across the spectrum of ethnic backgrounds will be uniting for a special time of worship and work.

The Nov. 17-19 meeting will be part of the second gathering to celebrate the New Baptist Covenant movement which began with a historic meeting at Atlanta in 2008. That meeting brought 15,000 Baptists from 40 different Baptist denominations and groups together.

As many as 30,000 to 35,000 people are projected to participate in the New Baptist Covenant II meeting which will be coordinated from the anchor city of Atlanta and broadcast live to simultaneous worship services in regional meetings across the country. Former president and first lady Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter and other prominent Baptists will speak live by satellite. Each regional meeting will feature “live and in person” their own slate of speakers, choirs, musicians, workshops, and breakouts.

The Oklahoma City meeting will feature the Ambassador Concert Choir on the evening of Thursday, Nov. 17. John Reed, pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Oklahoma City and President of the National Baptist Convention of Oklahoma, will be the keynote speaker on the morning of Friday, Nov. 18. That afternoon St. John will offer screenings and panel discussions of the documentary films “Gospel Without Borders” about immigration and “Beneath the Skin” about racism. There will also be opportunities to hear sermons by Dr. Lee Cooper, Pastor of Prospect Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, Dr. Tim Eaton, President of Hillsdale Freewill Baptist College, Rev. Todd Littleton, pastor Snow Hill Baptist Church in Tuttle, Dr. Wade Smith, pastor of First Baptist Church in Norman, and Dr. Charles Johnson, pastor of First Baptist Church of Desdemona, Texas. Other workshops include sessions about what is wrong with Oklahoma’s payday lending law and a Spanish language breakout on immigration law and procedure.

For additional information, visit our website: www.newbaptistcovenant.org

Essential Reading for Ministers

Last week, while speaking at Oklahoma City University, Bill Moyers recommended the book "A Paradise in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster" by Rebecca Solnit.

I got the book and read it. I think it is essential reading for everyone involved in ministry -- if for no other reason than that the book is filled with stories that would make good sermon illustrations.

Solnit scours accounts of how people have reacted in disasters over the past 100 years. She finds a lot more evidence of selflessness, altruism, civility and joy (yes, -- joy) than for selfishness, malevolence, incivility and despair.

Below are a few quotes that will give you a flavor for the insights she uncovers. You'll have to read the book if you are interested in the stories she brings to light.

Since postmodernism reshaped the intellectual landscape, it has been problematic to even use the term human nature, with its implication of a stable and universal human essence. The study of disasters makes it clear that there are plural and contingent natures -- but the prevalent human nature in disaster is resilient, resourceful, generous, empathic, and brave .(p. 8)

. . .

Disaster offers temporary solutions to the alienations and isolations of everyday life: "Thus while the natural or human forces that created or precipitated the disaster appear hostile and punishing, the people who survive become more friendly, sympathetic, and helpful than in normal times. The categorical approach to human beings is curbed and the sympathetic approached enlarged. In this sense, disasters may be a physical hell, but they result however temporarily in what may be regarded as a kind of social utopia." (p. 108)

. . .

"Disasters provide a temporary liberation from the worries, inhibitions and anxieties associated with the past and future because they force people to concentrate their full attention on immediate moment-to-moment, day-to-day needs within the context of present realities." (p.115)

Bill Moyers on Where Journalism is Going

Bill Moyers spoke at Oklahoma City University on 10-26-2011. Before his major address he held an informal "Conversation with Bill Moyers" answering questions from students. I managed to use my Galaxy Tab to record his answer to a question from a journalism student who asked what he thinks about the future of journalism.

Economics Made Fascinating

I heard a radio interview of Sylvia Nasar talking about her new book "Grand Pursuit:  The Story of Economic Genius" a few weeks ago and ordered the book because it sounded like the author could make the subject of economics interesting.  I've read a few books on economics and it was always a lot like taking medicine.  I know it is best to get it all down, but I can only swallow so much.

Nasar's previous bestseller was "A Beautiful Mind."  She knows how to tell a story.

When the book arrived, I set it with a stack of other books that I am looking for time to read and forgot about it for a couple weeks.  Sunday afternoon I decided to give the book a glance.  My intention was to read the preface and at most the first chapter, but the book is so well written that I could not put it down.  I read three chapters and 138 pages before I had to stop and fulfill other obligations.

I haven't had time to pick the book up again, but I am honestly eager to do so.  Nasar's forte is storytelling, but woven into her narrative are scores of brief summaries of economic theories and thought-provoking critiques.  Here's an example:

By asserting that labor was the source of all value, Marx claimed that the owner's income -- profit, interest, or managerial salary -- was unearned.  He did not argue that workers did not need capital -- factories, machines, tools, proprietary technology, and the like -- to produce the product.  Rather he argued that the capital the owner made available was nothing more than the product of past labor.  But the owner of any resource -- whether a horse, a house, or cash -- could use it herself.  Arguing, As Marx does, that waiting until tomorrow to consume what could be consumed today, risking one's resources, or managing and organizing a business have no value and therefore deserve no compensation is the same as saying that output can be produced without saving, waiting or taking risks.  This is a secular version of the old Christian argument against interest.

I recommend this book, even before I've finished reading it.

Norman City Council Unanimously Approves Public Profanity

When Moses received the Ten Commandments God made it clear that his name was not to be bandied about lightly.  God is nobody's mascot.  No one is to speak that name without the reverence that is due to the Almighty and the penalty for doing so would be severe:

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.  (Exodus 20:7 KJV)

At the request of some pretentiously pious city council members, the Norman City Council voted unanimously last night to post the supremely profane and sacrilegious motto "In God We Trust" in a prominent place in the city council chambers.

The council did so after being reminded that the Supreme Court's Lynch v. Donnelly (1984) decision upholding the constitutionality of the phrase as a national  motto ruled that the phrase serves no religious purpose but only a "secular purpose."   The Supremes called it a form of "ceremonial deism" that is constitutionally permissible only because this reference to God has "lost through rote repetition any significant religious content."

What the Supreme Court said about this national motto is precisely what God prohibited in Exodus 20:7.

There is no doubt that the pretentiously pious city council members who promoted this action were aware of the constitutional necessity to not give the appearance that they were supporting any religion or attaching any religious significance to the name of God.  Jeff Bryant, Norman's City Attorney made that clear when he said:

The resolution drafted by the three council members who sponsored the posting of the motto "is worded in such a way that it emphasizes the historical significance of the words."  If the motto is being posted for historical reasons, "and not in an effort to promote one religion over another, it's legally OK," Bryant said.

Clearly, these pretentiously pious city council members have knowingly and deliberately promoted the public profaning of the name of the Almighty.

I believe in a God of grace and mercy but I would not presume upon that grace in such a willful and unrepentant fashion.

May God have mercy on their souls.  They know what they are doing.

Podcast: Ray and Pat Potts Interview

Podcast (27 MB Mp3) of Dr. Bruce Prescott's 10-9-11 "Religious Talk" radio interview with Ray and Patt Potts, founders of the Potts Family Foundation (PFF) and Oklahoma Champions for Early Opportunities (OKCEO). We talk about the research underlining the importance of early childhood education and about the efforts of PFF and OKCEO to inform Oklahomans of the economic and social benefits of laying a solid foundation upon which children can learn to become productive members of society.

Open Letter to Jim Wallis

October 6th, 2011

An Open Letter to Jim Wallis from Writers about American Religion and Politics


Dear Jim Wallis,

We are writing in response to your e-mail to the Sojourners list on September 29th, and your similar piece on The Huffington Post, in which you claim that "some liberal writers" -- whom you do not name -- are broad brushing evangelical Christians as "intellectually-flawed right-wing crazies with dangerous plans for the country." You characterize unnamed writers -- writers like us -- as people who are "all too eager to discredit religion as part of their perennial habit and practice." This charge is as unfair as it is unsubstantiated.

You may recognize some of us as people who have written in recent years about such tendencies in modern Christian evangelicalism as dominionism, apocalyptic demonization, Christian Reconstructionism, and the New Apostolic Reformation. We see these forces as playing a significant role in our religious and political lives.

We are concerned about your recent attacks for three main reasons.

Our first concern is your claim that writers who are critical of these tendencies are making broad, unfair claims about "most or all evangelicals." This is just not so. We understand and try to reflect in our work the idea that some, but certainly far from all, evangelical Christians embrace or are influenced by these important movements.

We agree with you that evangelicals are highly varied; are not all politically conservative; and that certainly not all are Republicans. None of us has ever thought or written that they are. Indeed, some of us are evangelicals ourselves. We know that former Democratic presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton are evangelical Christians. And some of us have written about how elements of the above-mentioned movements and tendencies are also involved in the Democratic Party.

We understand that there are complexities in life, religion, and politics. We take seriously the need for and the extraordinary privilege of constantly learning. As writers, we are quite varied among ourselves. We are religious and non-religious; Christian and non-Christian. We have different histories and emphases in writing about religion, theology, and politics. We do not always agree with one another. But we all do agree on this much: These exclusionary Christian movements and tendencies are real, overlapping, and significant in evangelicalism specifically and in our political and electoral culture at large. We invite our readers to consider that there are aspects to these movements and tendencies that are profoundly problematic, and we invite you to consider that as well.

Second, we are concerned that you have endorsed the essay by Mark I. Pinsky that appeared recently in USA Today. That piece attacked some of us by name and all of us by implication. Pinsky's is but the latest in a series of prominently published smears against those of us who write about these subjects and their ties to powerful political interests. We are disturbed that you would cheer on these ad hominem attacks.

Finally, Pinsky tries to blame much of the published criticism of these elements of evangelicalism on left-wing Jews. We, including the majority of us who are not Jews, view this as a transparent effort to intimidate Jewish writers. We are shocked that you are endorsing and promoting Pinsky's attack on these writers, whose work is well-sourced and painstakingly researched.

We are also shocked that you equate these Jewish writers with “secular fundamentalists” whom you say “want to prove that evangelicals are stupid and dangerous extremists.” You do this by immediately following this claim by stating that Pinsky’s essay is one of “the best responses to the recent articles about evangelicals.”

We want to remind you that in his essay Pinsky goes so far as to compare the work of those four Jewish writers to some of the worst anti-Semitic smears in history, including false claims that Jews had "horns and tails, ate the blood of Christian children and poisoned the wells of Europe with plague.. [and] conspired to rule the world through our Protocols."

Whatever one may think of any of our published work, the fact is that none of it is remotely analogous to the false claims in the various notorious anti-Semitic forgeries known as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Pinsky 's equation of the work of the writers he names with the Protocols is despicable.

We would like to believe that despite our differences with you, you share with us a common desire for a just and peaceful world. We value honest disagreement and debate, and hope that you value these as well. Indeed, as writers we know how essential they are to clarifying and even resolving differences, correcting errors of fact -- and dare we say, perspective. These are necessary ingredients for democracy itself. We invite you take issue with any specific facts or characterizations in our work. Then we will have something to talk about. But we will not be silent in the face of smears and intimidation tactics -- which are so very far from the values of the faith traditions from which many of us hail, and the civic values of free speech and respect for religious pluralism that we all share.

We call on you to stop making false characterizations of our work and stop promoting the false characterizations of others. We also specifically ask that you rethink your support for Pinsky's smear and withdraw it.


Richard Bartholomew
Blogger, Bartholomew's Notes on Religion

Russ Bellant 
Journalist and author of The Religious Right in Michigan Politics

Chip Berlet
Journalist, blogger, co-author of Right–Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort

Bill Berkowitz
 Independent journalist. Contributor to BuzzFlash, AlterNet, and Z Magazine

Rob Boston
Assistant Editor, Church & State Magazine
Columnist, The Humanist Magazine

Frederick Clarkson
 Journalist, blogger, author of Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy; editor of Dispatches from the Religious Left: The Future of Faith and Politics in America

Joe Conn
Editor, Church & State Magazine

Barry W. Lynn
Publisher and Columnist, Church & State Magazine
Host, CultureShocks Radio Show

Greg Metzger
Independent journalist. Contributor to Christian Century, Commonweal, Books & Culture and Touchstone.

Rev. Dr. Bruce Prescott
Blogger at Mainstream Baptist
Host of Religious Talk radio show

Sara Robinson
Journalist, blogger, Senior Fellow at the Campaign for America's Future

Adele M. Stan
Washington Bureau Chief, AlterNet.

Rachel Tabachnick
Researcher and featured writer, Talk to Action

Bruce Wilson
Co-founder and featured writer, Talk to Action

Beware Kenmore Appliances

More than a month ago I posted a blog warning readers to beware Kemore refrigerators. At that time I was disgusted with the service I was (not) receiving on my Kenmore Elite refrigerator.

Purchased in October 2007 for in excess of $1800.00, my refrigerator has a 5 year warranty on the compressor and cooling system. In mid-August it stopped working. A repairman replaced a switch, charged me $295.00 for the repair and my refrigerator worked for another couple weeks. It has not worked since August 29th at the latest.

More than two weeks later, on September 12th Sears sent the repairman to look at my refrigerator again. He decided that it was missing freon and added some red dye freon that was supposed to make it work again and would let him determine where the freon was leaking. He said the refrigerator had to run for at least ten days before it circulated through the entire system and then he would come back to check it again. The refrigerator never did cool again and ran up my electric bill while it tried.

On October 3rd the repairman returned to check on my refrigerator. At that time he determined that the refrigerator could not be fixed and put a sticker on it that said it should be scrapped. He advised me that customer service would contact me within 24 hours to talk about replacing it.

24 hours later, at 10:30 AM on October 4th I had not heard from Sears and contacted customer service myself. Customer service advised me that someone would call me back in a couple hours.

Today, at 12:30 PM I still had not heard from Sears and went in person to talk to a manager at the Sears store where I purchased the refrigerator. I talked with a Heyward Chaplain who told me that my case was being handled by a Shannon Ross (or Roth) with Customer Solutions and that he would get in touch with me this afternoon.

3 hours later and I am still waiting.

How long should I wait for Sears to get their act together? Does anybody think this is a reasonable form of customer service?

Denison Gets It Half Right

Associated Baptist Press just posted an Opinion by Jim Denison, theologian-in-residence for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, entitled "The war on terror just got worse." Denison's opinion is about half right which also makes it about half wrong.

Denison is right about the need for the U.S. to work for economic progress in the Arab world and about the need to support and encourage moderate Muslims. He is right about an American veto of a Palestinian state being viewed as "an affront to their people and a threat to their future."

He is wrong to imply a need for a clearer and more unambiguous statement of U.S. support for the nation of Israel. What American President has ever stated that support more clearly and unambiguously than President Obama did in his recent speech at the United Nations?

But understand this as well: America’s commitment to Israel’s security is unshakeable. Our friendship with Israel is deep and enduring. And so we believe that any lasting peace must acknowledge the very real security concerns that Israel faces every single day.

Let us be honest with ourselves: Israel is surrounded by neighbors that have waged repeated wars against it. Israel’s citizens have been killed by rockets fired at their houses and suicide bombs on their buses. Israel’s children come of age knowing that throughout the region, other children are taught to hate them. Israel, a small country of less than eight million people, look out at a world where leaders of much larger nations threaten to wipe it off of the map. The Jewish people carry the burden of centuries of exile and persecution, and fresh memories of knowing that six million people were killed simply because of who they are. Those are facts. They cannot be denied.

The Jewish people have forged a successful state in their historic homeland. Israel deserves recognition. It deserves normal relations with its neighbors. And friends of the Palestinians do them no favors by ignoring this truth, just as friends of Israel must recognize the need to pursue a two-state solution with a secure Israel next to an independent Palestine.

In fact, Obama voiced such strong support for Israel that the Israeli press was concerned that it undermined any chance that the U.S. would ever be viewed again as an honest powerbroker in the peace process.

It is simply naive to believe that declaring our "intention to revive the peace process" would turn our veto of a Palestinian state "into positive leadership for Palestine and Israel."

The most egregious omission in Denison's opinion is his total disregard for the way Israel has alienated allies and undermined the peace process by incessantly building settlements in occupied Palestinian territory. Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates speaks about the major obstacle to peace most succinctly:

"Israel is now alone in the Middle East. Israel has made mistakes. They are having trouble with Egypt. They have alienated Turkey. They assassinated a Hamas leader in the United Arab Emirates."

He blamed their isolation on the settlements. He explained, "The Arabs are angry about the settlements. Every American President has urged stopping the settlements because each new settlement makes it harder to define the borders."

I applaud Denison's desire to be a peacemaker. I wish he demonstrated as much concern for the security and human rights of Palestinians as he does for the Israeli's.

Iris Murdoch's Pocket History of Literature

Iris Murdoch's essay on "The Sublime and the Good" in the book Existentialists and Mystics: Writings on Philosophy and Literature offers a history of the literature of freedom that I find intriguing. Here's her pocket history of literature: (Note: This is one paragraph in Murdoch's essay, I've reformatted it for web readability)

We can offer a pocket history of literature, establishing an order of merit. This pocket history works throught the idea of freedom as this idea has been treated at different times. The history of the treatment of freedom falls into five phases. These phases can be taken as roughly chronological, and can also be used independently of chronology. They are as follows.

1) Tragic freedom. This is the concept of freedom which I have related to the concept of love: freedom as an exercise of the imagination in an unreconciled conflict of dissimilar beings. It belongs especially to, was perhaps invented by, the Greeks. The literary form is tragic drama.

2) Medieval freedom. Here the individual is seen as a creature with a partly described hierarchy of theological reality. The literary forms are religious tales, allegories, morality plays.

3) Kantian freedom. This belongs to the Enlightenment. The individual is seen as a non-historical rational being moving towards complete agreement with other rational beings. The literary forms are rationalistic tales and allegories and novels of ideas.

4) Hegelian freedom. This belongs mainly to the nineteenth century. The individual is now thought of as a part of a total historical society and takes his importance from his role in that society. The literary form is the true novel (Balzac, George Eliot, Dickens).

5) Romantic freedom. This belongs mainly to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, though it has roots earlier. The individual is seen as solitary and as having importance in and by himself. Both Hegelian and Romantic freedom are of course developments of Kantian freedom. Hegel makes the Kingdom of Ends into a historical society; while the Romantic concludes from the unhistorical emptiness of Kant's other rational beings that in fact one may as well assume that one is alone. (This is one line of thought leading to existentialism. Angst is the modern version of Achtung; we now fear, not the law itself, but its absence.) The literary form is the neurotic modern novel.

Forgive Us Our Debtor Presidents

Private Prisons Profiting from Immigrant Bashing

Robert Parham has posted an essay at Ethics Daily exposing the role private prison companies have been playing in securing anti-immigrant legislation. Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) in particular has profitted handsomely from investments they have made in the campaign coffers of politicians who have sponsored and promoted legislation that puts undocumented aliens under their control.

CCA operates in 19 states including Oklahoma:

CCA has three prisons in Oklahoma, a state that had the most draconian anti-immigration laws before Arizona passed SB 1070.

The Tulsa World reported that Oklahoma Republican Gov. Mary Fallin has received CCA money.

T. Boone Pickens on CNG

Put a CNG Station at Every Post Office

This video may be called "Pump Fiction" but the solution it offers to our energy problems is not fiction. Powering automobiles with (CNG) compressed natural gas is the best first step toward a cleaner energy future.

Abrahamic Faiths Post 9-11, Part Five

Abrahamic Faiths Post 9-11, Part Five from Bruce Prescott on Vimeo.

Orhan Kucukosman, Executive Director of the Oklahoma City branches of the Institute for Interfaith Dialog and the Raindrop Turkish House, speaks on peacebuilding in interfaith relations. A music video about "Religions of Peace" concludes.

Abrahamic Faiths Post 9-11, Part Four

Abrahamic Faiths Post 9-11, Part Four from Bruce Prescott on Vimeo.

Dr. David Spain, pastor of First Christian Church in Norman, Oklahoma offers a prayer followed by a University of Oklahoma choir singing "Make me an instrument of thy Peace" while children create a symbol of interfaith unity and peace.

Abrahamic Faiths Post 9-11, Part Three

Abrahamic Faiths Post 9-11, Part Three from Bruce Prescott on Vimeo.

Dr. Barbara Boyd, Director of Outreach for the Religious Studies Program at the University of Oklahoma, moderates an interfaith discussion between Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, President of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Dr. Mitch Randall, pastor of NorthHaven Baptist Church in Norman, Oklahoma, and Imam Imad Enchassi, President of the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City.

Abrahamic Faiths Post 9-11, Part Two

Abrahamic Faiths Post 9-11, Part Two from Bruce Prescott on Vimeo.

Statements by Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, President of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Dr. Mitch Randall, pastor of NorthHaven Baptist Church in Norman, Oklahoma, and Imam Imad Enchassi, President of the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City in response to the question, "Is peace possible among people of different faiths in our violent world?"

Abrahamic Faiths Post 9-11, Part One

Abrahamic Faiths Post 9-11, Part One from Bruce Prescott on Vimeo.

Opening introductions, recognitions, prayers and Dr. Mark Lucas directing a choir from the University of Oklahoma during the first 25 minutes of an interfaith conference held in Norman, Oklahoma on 9-11-2011.

On Children Condemned by the Sins of their Fathers

Greentechmedia has posted a chart revealing how the economic development of China and India is projected to effect energy usage by 2035.

Unless they are over 60 years of age, the chart gives strong indication that those denying that the world is facing peak oil and those denying anthropogenic climate change could easily to live to regret their ignorance.

Unfortunately, my children and grandchildren will have to live with their grievous mistakes along with their own children and grandchildren.

Peace in the Abrahamic Faith Traditions

I spoke at a peace conference in Ames, Iowa Wednesday evening. Below is the text of some of my remarks.

Let me say thank-you to Ahmad Dursan and the Niagra Foundation for inviting me to speak this evening and thanks to the Ames Public Library for hosting this event. I am both honored and humbled by this request. I am humbled because I am not a scholar of Jewish or Muslim thought -- and there are many who might say that I don’t have a very good grasp of Christian thought either.

I don’t make any claim to being a scholar. All I claim to be is a student who has done some research into Muslim thought, a little more research into Jewish thought, and a lot of study of Christian thought. I will share with you something of what I have learned, but I am still learning and I fully expect to learn something new today from some of you before we are through.

I suspect that what brings me here more than anything else is that I am a person with faith in the God of Abraham who is deeply concerned that, as people of faith, we related to each other peacefully and with all due respect. One of my firmest convictions is that those who believe in the inevitability of a “clash of civilizations” between the Christian and Muslim world do not know much about the kind of God we worship and the values we share.

It was requested that I speak about the understanding of peace in the Abrahamic faith traditions – the traditions who worship the same God, i.e. the God of Abraham. That requires that I start at the very beginning of recorded history – literally. The text we all share in common – the Hebrew Bible – says that:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.” (Gen. 1:1-2)

Our scriptures are very much in agreement with modern scientific explanations that tell us that the universe began with a big bang. It is not hard to imagine that God simply spoke and all the matter and energy of the universe exploded into existence. The opening words of Genesis note the chaotic nature of those first moments of cosmic time. The earth was without form and void. Then we are told that the Spirit of God himself was already moving to create order out of this chaos and make a place for the kind of peaceful, harmonious relations between God and humanity and between men and women that will soon be described in the garden of Eden.

From the very beginning God has revealed himself to be a powerful creative being striving to give order to the universe and working to bring peace to the world that he made for men and women that he created in his image. The God of Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammad is a God of peace.

Peace (shalom) in the Hebrew Bible means more than the mere absence of conflict and strife. It speaks about the joy, prosperity, well-being, and wholeness of a life that exists when men and women are in proper, loving relationship with God and each other. Peace is so central to Jewish thought that the renowned rabbi Hillel defined the heart of Judaism as “love peace and pursue it” (m. Abot. 1.12) and the sages who compiled the Mishnah said that “All that is written in the Torah was written for the sake of peace.” (Tanhuma’ Shofetim 18)

In Jewish thought peace (shalom) is associated with the idea of a covenant between God and his people. Shalom is a gift from God that men and women have the responsibility to maintain. Fidelity to the covenant means living in accord with the terms of God’s covenant -- the righteous and just laws and principles that preserve and promote peaceful and loving relations.

The shalom of covenant relations stands against oppression, deceit, fraud and anything that violates the order that God intends for life. Standing against injustice leads to conflict and conflict can lead to violence. Conflict and violence upends orderly relations and creates chaos. Whenever chaos reigns in human relations, you can be sure that the Spirit of God is moving to find someone who will work to restore order and peace.

God’s preferred way for restoring order and peace is to call a prophet. The prophet speaks a word from God against injustice and he, or she -- [Miriam (Moses sister, Ex. 15), Deborah (Judges 4) and Huldah (2 Kings 22) are called “prophetesses” in the Hebrew Bible] – incarnates God’s message, i.e. making it clear by standing before the people visibly, by speaking in an audible voice and by seeing that it is written down. The prophets call for repentance and work to renew the peace and harmony of covenant relations.

I do not believe that God ever intended for peace and order to be restored by violent means. If men and women would hear and heed what is spoken, the prophetic word alone has sufficient power and authority to create peace.

The problem is that people don’t all listen at the same time. Our ears are not in sync. Both individually and collectively people hear and receive the word of God’s covenant at different historical moments. Restoring law and order and making peace by the power of the word alone takes time.

In the meantime, few men and women have patience for the work of the prophets. The children of Israel demanded a king like other nations. They wanted someone who would organize them and restore order by force and violence if necessary -- leading them in battle against those who oppressed them. The prophet Samuel warned them that this was a mistake and that, in the end, their kings would be their oppressors. But the sons of Israel insisted and God relented, and the rest is history. The Hebrews got their king, but centuries passed before the gentile world began to hear and receive the word of the covenant. Still more centuries passed before the sons of Ishmael were reminded of the covenant God made with their ancestor Abraham.

Throughout the scriptures a social order that is truly honoring to God is understood, in a world of kings, to be a kingdom of peace and righteousness. As the prophets of Israel repeatedly attest, every historical social order falls woefully short of the kind that God intends for us. The rule and reign of God is always beyond the best human efforts.

Any sign that a kingdom of peace and righteousness is near is “good news” to the poor, the oppressed, the sick and the brokenhearted – that is, it is “good news” to all those who have come out on the short end of the equanimity and justice that makes life harmonious and peaceful. It is “good news” to those whose lives have not been characterized by the joy, prosperity, well-being, and wholeness of shalom.

That is the “good news” that Jesus proclaimed. Jesus proclaimed the “good news” that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. Like the prophets before him, he spoke against injustice. Like the prophets before him, he incarnated God’s message -- making it clear by standing before the people visibly, by speaking in an audible voice and by seeing that it was written down. Like the prophets before him, he called for repentance and worked to re-create the peace and harmony of covenant relations.

But he was different from the prophets before him. One way he differed was the way he spoke of God. He spoke of God as his father with a familiarity and intimacy that was unique. He called God “Abba” which is equivalent to calling him “Daddy.”

Another way he differed was the way he separated religion and government. He told his disciples to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and render unto God the things that are God’s. He said God’s kingdom was not an earthly kingdom, but a spiritual kingdom, and he told his disciples that the kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21). He said greatness in God’s kingdom is associated with the moral authority of humility and servanthood -- not with the kind of prestige and influence that adheres to wealth and power. He rejected every temptation to assume political power, or to associate the kingdom of heaven with any temporal kingdom, or to exercise physical force and employ violence. He told his disciples to turn the other cheek when struck with a fist, to return good for evil, to love even their enemies, and he commanded them to put away their swords when the authorities came to arrest him. His way of ushering in the kingdom of God, restoring order and bringing peace was the arduous, time-consuming way of self-giving service, non-violent resistance, and sacrificial love.

Before the days of the Roman Emperor Constantine, Christians were a small and oft persecuted group. They proclaimed God’s word without the use of force or violence. For the most part, they practiced their faith in humility. Religion and government -- the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of man -- were viewed as separate and distinct. But that all changed when Constantine decided to employ the Christian faith to pacify conquered nations and unify the Roman Empire.

The Pax Romana had as little to do with the peace of God’s kingdom as does the Pax Americana today. Every association of the tenuous, violence prone peace forged by earthly empires with the kind of peace that Jesus proclaimed is sacrilegious and idolatrous. The truth is, none of the theories used to justify war have any basis for support in the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. In my opinion -- which is rooted in the tradition of the radical reformation that gave rise to the Anabaptists, Mennonites, Amish, and Quakers -- throughout history, the most faithful disciples of Jesus have been actively engaged pacifists who oppose injustice with the conviction that God expects them to voluntarily surrender their lives before participating in another cycle of violence.

Unfortunately, Mohammad never witnessed the kind of faith among Christians that Jesus preached. The Constantinian form of Christianity had been around for 250 years by the time he was born. Mohammad, peace be upon him, is the messenger or prophet of God’s covenant in the Muslim world. Islam is a derived from the word “salaam.” The root meaning of Islam literally means peace, security and well-being. Concern for peace is at the very core of Islam.

Like the Hebrew prophets, Mohammad denounced polytheism and proclaimed monotheism. Like the Hebrew prophets, he spoke against injustice. Like the Hebrew prophets, he incarnated God’s message -- making it clear by standing before the people visibly, by speaking in an audible voice and by seeing that it was written down. Like the Hebrew prophets, he called for repentance and worked to create the peace and harmony of covenant relations.

Unlike Jesus, Mohammad condoned the use of force in self-defense. Unlike both Jesus and almost most of the Hebrew prophets, Mohammad combined the role of prophet and commander-in-chief in his own person.

It should be noted that Mohammad assumed leadership of military forces somewhat reluctantly and for the purposes of securing peace and self-defense. Early in his ministry he avoided conflict by sending his followers to Yathrib, latter renamed Medina, because their lives were threatened in Mecca. He accepted the role of chief arbitrator in Medina in order to help settle the grievances between the local tribes that disturbed the peace of the city. Creating a just and peaceful order for the city prompted him to draft a covenant, what we would call a social contact -- the Constitution of Medina -- which essentially created the first Islamic state. That same constitution preserved the rights and religious freedoms of other “people of the book” (specifically, Jews and Christians).

Mohammad’s role as leader of military forces emerged as he successfully defended Medina when an army from Mecca besieged the city over a dispute involving trade caravans. Then, within three years, his forces had conquered Mecca and had subdued, unified and brought peace and order to the tribes of the entire Arabian Peninsula.

Despite Mohammad’s approval of the use of military force, there is remarkably little in the Qur’an that condones violence in the name of God. Frankly, there is nothing that stands comparison to what can be found in the Hebrew Bible (cf. 1 Sam. 15) or to what can be found in fundamentalist Christian interpretations of the New Testament book of Revelation.

I have heard people call Islam a “blood thirsty religion.” The most blood thirsty verse, if you want to call it that, I have found in all of the Qur’an is Sura 5:33 which talks about slaying, crucifying or cutting off an alternate hand and foot of one who wages war against Allah and his messenger. That verse is immediately preceded by these words:

“He who slayeth any one, unless it be a person guilty of manslaughter, or of spreading disorders in the land, shall be as though he had slain all mankind; but he who saveth a life, shall be as though he saved all mankind alive.”

The major thrust of the Qur’an teaches Muslims to be forbearant and forgiving toward those who do wrong to them, to be patient and longsuffering in times of persecution, and to trust that, in his own time, Allah will judge evil and secure a just punishment for it. The words of Sura 42:20 are typical:

“But there shall be a way open against those who unjustly wrong others, and act insolently on the earth in disregard of justice. These! A grievous punishment doth await them. And whoso beareth wrongs with patience and forgiveth; -- this verily is a bounden duty;”

Of course, there is no guarantee that Muslims will be faithful in putting into practice the harmonious covenant relations and peaceful intentions of the Qur’an. Certainly, no more than Christians are guaranteed to put the teachings of Jesus into practice or that Jews will be faithful to put the shalom of Hebrew covenant relations into practice.

Historically, there is sufficient evidence to condemn all of our faith communities of some of the vilest forms of infidelity in regard to the use of violence. Frankly, I am convinced that the failures within the Christian community are the most egregious and inexcusable. The overwhelming majority of Christians continue to justify and condone the very forms of force and violence that Jesus adamantly condemned and rejected.

Despite our shortcomings in this regard and despite the shortcomings of the Jewish and Muslim community in regard to violence and war, all three of our faith traditions share a similar hope for peace that, while not being secured in the real world, is envisioned in an ideal future. It is the hope that was proclaimed by the Prophet Isaiah:

Now it will come about that
In the last days
The mountain of the house of the LORD
Will be established as the chief of the mountains,
And will be raised above the hills;
And all the nations will stream to it.
And many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
That He may teach us concerning His ways
And that we may walk in His paths.”
For the law will go forth from Zion
And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
And He will judge between the nations,
And will render decisions for many peoples;
And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not lift up sword against nation,
And never again will they learn war.
Isaiah 2:2-4

Let us all pray that conscientious and faithful people in all of our traditions – Jews, Christians and Muslims -- will rise up together and work to see that the peace that Isaiah proclaimed does become a reality.

Podcast: The Price of Freedom and Security

Podcast (34MB Mp3) of the 9-11-2011 "Religioius Talk" radio broadcast in which Dr. Bruce Prescott reprises his speech on "And Justice for All: The Price of Freedom and Security" that was first delivered in the House Chamber at the Oklahoma State Capitol on February 11, 2003

And Justice for All: The Price of Freedom and Security

On this national day of prayer and rememberance, on my radio program I will be giving a reprise of a speech I delivered in the House Chamber at the State Capitol in Oklahoma on February 11, 2003 for the Oklahoma Conference of Churches 20th annual day at the legislature.  That speech was delivered weeks before our nation invaded Iraq to remove non-existent weapons of mass destruction.


Here's a link to the full text of my speech (with references) on "And Justice for All:  The Price of Freedom and Security."


Here's an excerpt from that speech:

Our material wealth can be forfeited and regained, but the spiritual wealth of our civil liberties and personal freedoms are not so easily exchanged. We must especially beware that any liberty we suspend for fear of terrorists could easily be forfeited for generations to come. The freedoms we enjoy in our democratic society are worth whatever dangers we will face, whatever risks we must take, and whatever sacrifices we choose to make. America must not retreat from two and a quarter centuries of hard won civil liberties. Never before have we settled for being the land of the safe and the home of the secure. We’ve always had the courage to strive to be the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Instead of the frightful overreaction we have witnessed since September 11th, our nation would do better if it would respond to terrorism the way the people of Oklahoma responded to the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building. That bomb did not prompt us to surrender our civil rights or to infringe on the rights of others. Unlike our federal government:

We did not suspend the constitution.

We did not send the police out to round-up, lock-up or expel all the foreigners and immigrants in town.

We did not hold suspects indefinitely without access to the courts or to counsel.

We did not tape conversations between suspects and their lawyers.

We did not suspend the laws requiring probable cause for wiretaps or search warrants.

We did not expand the role of the military in domestic law enforcement.

We did not torture suspects to obtain information, nor did we allow surrogates to torture suspects for information.

We did not create a military tribunal to try and execute suspects without applying the Constitution or state and federal laws.

We did not endorse assassination as an alternative to capture.

We did not create a private foundation to issue ID cards to all citizens.

We did not create a network of free-lance spies to report anything that might be considered suspicious.

We did not create a massive computer system to keep tabs on every aspect of our citizen’s daily lives.

And, we did not use the bombing as an excuse to suspend the first, second, and fourth amendments and then attack militias or invade white supremacist compounds to make them disarm.

What we did was to rescue survivors, clean-up the wreckage, rebuild our city and bring the criminals to justice. The bombing of the Murrah Federal Building did not destroy the freedom-loving, risk-taking, self-sacrificing spirit of the people of Oklahoma. Neither should the criminal acts of a few terrorists destroy the freedom-loving, risk-taking, self-sacrificing spirit of our nation.

Since September 11, 2001 it has become commonplace to say that the world changed that day. Some things did change. Several thousand precious, unique and irreplaceable lives were lost and the lives of many more were irreparably harmed.

I must object, however, to assigning any significance to the evil that transpired that day. In my mind, the most important lesson to be learned from that day is to be found in the images of heroism and the examples of self-sacrifice demonstrated by the men and women of the New York City fire department and police department and others like them.

We need to learn from the people who left places where they were safe and secure and walked courageously into harm’s way to rescue the victims of a grave injustice. From them we learn that there are some things in life that are more important than safety and more valuable than security.

Here's a link to a podcast (34MB Mp3) of the speech.

Praying for James Lankford

Yesterday's Daily Oklahoman ran a news story titled "Rep. James Lankford Encourages Oklahomans to Pray for America's Leaders."

 The article makes it clear that he wants Oklahomans to pray that Congress will pass legislation to amend the Constitution and require a balanced budget.

 I am going to pray for Rep. Lankford and my petitions are going to be fairly specific.

 I am going to pray that Rep. Lankford will spend some time with people who still cannot find a job after being laid off three years ago when the unindicted crooks running our deregulated banking system caused our economy to implode.

 I am going to pray that Rep. Lankford will spend some time with the people who are living on food stamps and in homeless shelters because their unemployment benefits have expired.

 I am going to pray that Rep. Lankford will spend some time with people who cannot get health insurance because his tea party supporters insisted that our Governor refuse $54 million dollars of federal funding that was offered to set up a health network for them.

 I am going to pray that Rep. Lankford will spend some time in the emergency rooms at Oklahoma's hospitals with the people who have no health insurance and explain to the patients why balancing the federal budget without increasing taxes on millionaires is more important than their emergency medical treatment.

 I am going to pray that Rep. Lankford will spend some time in the emergency rooms and outpatient clinics at Oklahoma's hospitals with the people who do have health insurance who are refusing their doctor's advice that they be admitted for treatment because they know that they cannot afford to pay the deductible on their private insurance policy and the co-pay amounts.

 I am going to pray that Rep. Lankford will spend some time on the floors of Oklahoma's hospitals with the nurses and technicians who are being laid off or having their salaries cut or frozen because private insurance companies won't pay, medicare and medicaid won't pay, and the average Oklahoman cannot afford to pay for medical care.

 This list is already getting a little long and there are a lot more things to pray for. Mostly, they are things that involve real people trying to live in an economy that has been rigged to benefit the wealthy and neglect the working class. They don't have the knowledge or the power to change the system to make it fair. They need someone with the knowledge and power to straighten out our economic system and make it fair for everyone.

 Rep. Lankford and his cronies have some power, but they don't understand either the source or the magnitude of the problem. And, they will never comprehend the problem as long as they remained fixated on dollar signs instead of people.

 It's time to pray.

Podcast: Rachel Tabachnick Interview

Podcast (34 MB Mp3) of Dr. Bruce Prescott's 9-4-11 "Religious Talk" radio interview with Rachel Tabachnick. Rachel is a leading researcher into the teachings of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement. We talk about the role of C. Peter Wagner in the movement, about the Heartland Apostolic Prayer Network, about GOP presidential contender Rick Perry's call to prayer, and about the influence of the New Apostolic Reform movement on current politics in America.

Beware Kenmore Refrigerators

Kenmore refrigerators are not what they used to be and the Sears service department is worse than a bad joke.

On October 16, 2007 we bought a top-of-the-line Kenmore Elite stainless steel clad refrigerator. The stainless steel cosmetics cost me twice as much as most plain vanilla refrigerators its size. We bought it to replace a now 22 year old plain vanilla Amana refrigerator that is still at work in our basement.

On August 15, 2011 I paid $295.00 for a repairman to replace the switch that turns the compressor on. My wife was out-of-town and I lost about $300.00 worth of frozen food before discovering that the compressor was not working.

Today my wife discovered that the compressor on the refrigerator is not working again. This time we caught it before losing all our perishables. We moved them to the 22 year old Amana.

I just had an online chat session with Aden Fernandez who works on the Sears service department website.

The earliest he can schedule a repairman to look at my refrigerator is September 12th. He advised me that I could expect another stiff repair bill.

You make the call. Would you pay for more repairs? Would you buy another Kenmore appliance? Would you trust a company with this kind of service?

From Church Growth Theology to Dominionism

Thirty-six years ago I enrolled for my first semester of studies at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. That was before the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention which made the seminary a ghost town. In the mid-1970's Southwestern Seminary was the largest seminary in the world with a student body approaching 5,000 students.

One of the classes I took that first semester was a required course on missionary strategy. One of the textbooks for that course was a book by C. Peter Wagner entitled "Frontiers of Missionary Strategy." That book was my introduction to a more pragmatic than Christian strategy for missionary expansion, evangelism and church planting that was associated with the "church growth movement."

I was never impressed with C. Peter Wagner or with the "church growth movement" that surrounded him at Fuller Theological Seminary. In a nutshell, church growth philosophy taught that effectiveness in ministry could be measured primarily by the number of seats in the pews and filling seats meant creating an atmosphere where "birds of a feather will flock together."

In my eyes, their "principle of homogeneity" seemed to me to bless the social divisions that made Sunday mornings the most racially segregated hours of the week. For me, that was inimical to the gospel. The gospel is about breaking down all the racial, social and economic barriers that divide men and women and that separate them from God's love.

Until recently, I never paid much attention to C. Peter Wagner or the church growth movement, but many, if not most, of my colleagues at Southwestern Seminary did. Rick Warren, who received his Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern a year behind me, got his Doctor of Ministry degree under the supervision of C. Peter Wagner at Fuller Theological Seminary. Wagner's influence on Rick Warren alone ought to be sufficient to demonstrate that Wagner's thought deserves careful examination when it begins influencing secular politics.

I started looking at Wagner's thought again when his name surfaced in blogs, news reports and interviews about the dominionist theology that permeates the tea party movement which is wreaking political havoc in our nation.

Dominionism is the belief that Christians should take control of the government and all the institutions of society. This theocratic mandate has been popularized by viewing society as consisting of seven “mountains” or key spheres in which Christians should strive to attain controlling influence – family, church, business, government, media, education, and arts and entertainment.

I have been somewhat surprised to see that since at least the 1980's, Wagner has been closely associated with the charismatic and pentecostal wing of Christianity. I suspect the impetus for that move originated in his sensitivity to critiques of the principle of homogeneity like the one above. Whatever else could be said about this wing of Christianity, it must be acknowledged that charismatic and pentecostal Christians attend the least segregated and most fully integrated churches in America.

Wagner's pragmatic approach to theology -- which can be summarized as "whatever seems to be working" to fill the pews, however, appears to me to have traded one distortion of the gospel for another. Now he is one of the key leaders in the dominionist movement that is determined to turn Christ into a political messiah complete with modern day "apostles" and disciples who "rule as kings" exercising dominion over all society.

Anyone who has read the gospels ought to know that the Dominionist understanding of messiahship and of the kingdom of God was repeatedly dismissed by Jesus.

On Gospel Twisting Wordsmithing

Michael Gerson, former President George W. Bush's chief speech writer, the wordsmith who laced Bush's speeches with religious code words like "wonder-working power" and crafted the "smoking gun/mushroom cloud" metaphor to scare Americans into a war to strip Saddam Hussein of non-existent weapons of mass destruction, has an Op-Ed published in today's Tulsa World that berates the idea of theocrats in the tea party.

Gerson has a long tenure of service to those motivated by theocratic impulses.  His defense of the tea party is a smokescreen.

Mainstream Baptists have seen smokescreens like this before.  The fundamentalists who took over the Southern Baptist Convention were adept at using such soothing smokescreens to paint their critics as alarmists.  After the fundamentalists were in control, the ruthlessness of their purging of moderate Baptists was worse than anyone had predicted.

James Heflin, whose father was a victim of the fundamentalist purges in the SBC, penned an matchless critique of the gospel twisting politicization of religious language that has been both Gerson’s  and the SBC Fundamentalist's forte:

George W. Bush's January State of the Union address was, for the most part, nothing out of the ordinary. But then my former governor (yes, I'm a Texan) dropped an unusual phrase: "...there's power, wonder-working power, in the goodness and idealism and faith of the American people." 

That phrase was not mere wordsmithing. I know it well. I know about polished church pews; I know about dress shoes that blistered my young feet and the smooth heft of the hymnal. As the son of a Baptist minister, I know. I know about the exuberant, saloon-worthy piano, the cat-eye-spectacled old ladies sliding "power" into one syllable, and I know the rest of the phrase: "There is pow'r, pow'r, wonder-working pow'r, in the blood, [men echo] in the blood, of the Lamb, [men echo again] of the Lamb. There is pow'r, pow'r, wonder-working pow'r in the precious blood of the Lamb." 

Bush was stealthily passing the message to the flock, to my flock. The issues that have plagued that flock for a quarter century are integral to understanding the second self-professed "born-again" man in the White House, his political tactics and his war in Iraq. 

Its fans call it the "conservative resurgence." Its detractors call it the "fundamentalist takeover." The astonishing fact is that many, perhaps most, Southern Baptists are unaware that the foundation of their faith has been officially pulled out from under them through systematic, long-term political manipulation. The people of God trust each other; when someone breaks the rules, they pray, they try to reconcile. But the abandonment of civil behavior always trumps good will. 

Two people, Paige Patterson and Paul Pressler (a former appeals court judge), perhaps as far back as the '60s, created the plan to transform a denomination. Like fundamentalists of every breed, they started with a simple premise: We're right. Everyone else is wrong. God is on our side, so what we do to those in our way is irrelevant, if our right triumphs over their wrong. That the central, selfless directive of Christianity is "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" is a petty detail, imminently ignorable to God's self-appointed chosen.

Food Stamp Nation

In the Great Depression the unemployed survived by soup lines.  In today's "Great Contraction" the unemployed and underemployed are surviving by food stamps which are now called SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).

This from Reuters today:

Altogether, there are now almost 46 million people in the United States on food stamps, roughly 15 percent of the population. That's an increase of 74 percent since 2007, just before the financial crisis and a deep recession led to mass job losses.

Mainstream Media Slow to Catch on about Dominionism

Fred Clarkson has written an insightful blog in response to a column by Lisa Miller, published in the Washington Post, that attempted to brush off concerns about the religious extremism of many tea party activists. Miller erroneously equates criticism of these tea party activists with criticism of the broader evangelical movement. Then she offers a feeble defense for evangelical dominionism.

 Fred Clarkson founded the Talk-to-Action website which specializes in providing up-to-date information about Christian Reconstructionism, Dominionism, Christian Nationalism and right-wing political activism among both Catholic and Evangelical Christians.

 All these labels describe theological nuances and shades of meaning related to the degree to which the religious right opposes separation of religion and government and favors establishing Christianity by force of law.

 There is one word that describes the trajectory being traced by all these shades of meaning. That word is "theocracy."

 It is fairly clear that the mainstream media have little inclination or capacity to grasp the nuances of our definitions. Our discussion of the radical Christian right needs to be simplified enough for them to comprehend.

The people who have stepped to the forefront of our national politics are "theocrats" of one degree or another. I intend to call them that.

Frankly, the theocratic impulse we are seeing in politics today is more extreme than it has ever been in my lifetime.

A sign I'd be inclined to post if I was still in Texas

Can't Get No Satisfaction

Norman Native Involved in Pro-Bachmann Super PAC

Right Wing Watch has published information about a secretive Pro-Bachmann Super PAC led by theocratic ideologues.  Norman native Marc Nuttle is one of the key advisers for the PAC:

Nuttle is a Republican adviser and economist with deep ties to an extreme movement within the Religious Right composed of advocates of Seven Mountains Dominionism. Nuttle is in fact Chairman of The Oak Initiative, a far-right organization dedicated to promoting the Seven Mountains ideology. The group claims in its mission statement, “The Oak Institute is being developed to raise up effective leaders for all of the dominant areas of influence in the culture, including: government, business, education, arts and entertainment, family services, media, and the church,” otherwise known as the Seven Mountains of society that Dominionists think should be controlled by fundamentalist Christians. 

The Oak Initiative’s president Rick Joyner, the founder of MorningStar Ministries, has claimed that God is planning to destroy California and that God used Hurricane Katrina to punish America for tolerating homosexuality. The Oak Initiative’s board is filled with leading proponents of Seven Mountains Dominionism, including Jerry Boykin, Janet Porter, Lance Wallnau and self-proclaimed prophet Cindy Jacobs. Lou Sheldon, the head of the Traditional Values Coalition who described LGBT activism as “the very face of evil,” is also a board member. 

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council (Blackwell’s boss) and 2000 GOP presidential candidate Alan Keyes addressed the Oak Initiative’s 2011 Summit alongside Nuttle, where Perkins called gays and lesbians “hateful” people who are “pawns” of Satan and Keyes urged Congress to impeach President Obama before he seizes power with the help of foreign countries. At the Summit, Boykin said that Obama is creating his own Brownshirt army to usher in Marxism and Joyner suggested that a secretive cabal crashed the economy to help Obama win the presidential election. 

Nuttle spoke to Joyner’s MorningStar Ministries on how to “apply proper biblical principles to the marketplace and the workforce” and that God “has a plan and a solution for this current world crisis we find ourselves in.” Nuttle said that people “don’t have to figure” out all the economic solutions, “all you have to do is be obedient” to God. He also claimed that the United States is the only country with a government subservient to God: “Every other government in the world is some sort of government authority, it’s a dictatorship, or Islam where government is God, or where the dictator is God, or the Constitution is God, over the constituents.” Nuttle argued that “the fight is against the 30% [of politicians] who don’t care” about the decline of the economy, “because then there’s more room for government. Government’s what they want, socialism is the goal.” He ended his speech by saying, “lock your shields with each other against the enemy.”