Southern Sojourner

Can the Prophet be Partisan?

I have officially become partisan.  Of course, I have acted partisan for some time but never came out and admitted it publicly.  Recently, I was named the acting chair of the Minister's Caucus of Over The Mountain Democrats.  This has been an interesting journey and retains all of the tensions that I have become comfortable with over the years. And it has also caused me to dialog with folk on more than one occasion recently about what, if any, role does partisanship play if one desires to maintain a prophetic voice.

Many of my minister friends will argue that you can not be partisan and still be prophetic.  It is an argument that has substantial merit.  But I have found that they are are partisan in action.  So what matters?  What you do or what you claim?  I have also found that much of this idealism is often no more than cowardice and a desire to keep a comfortable job.  Which I might add is not very prophetic.

Here is where I am on this issue at the moment.  Sometimes your prophetic role demands partisanship.  I am a member of the God's universal church, and I can still retain a prophetic role within it.  I can also be a member of a political party and still say a prophetic word to it.  To say that membership in something precludes a word of prophecy is just not correct.

Now, I don't like claiming that Christ on my side or anything like that, but when I vote I do try to vote like I think Christ would vote and that is how I choose my political allegiances.  What, you may ask, is my criteria for discerning what I think Christ would vote for?  Simple, it is what Christ talked about and acted on. 

Since Christ didn't speak to abortion, and since he did not have one, no not one, thing to say about homosexuality, and because the family values that Jesus preached doesn't resemble the modern day home school crowd, I don't feel compelled to vote for the party that seems to have alot to say about such issues.  I choose to vote for the party that does have something to say about things that I understand to be issues that Jesus was concerned about:  Peace, Poverty, Oppression, Justice to name a few. 

When a party hijacks religion as the Republican party has done with evangelical Christianity, then I believe one of the  prophetic actions I can do is to become partisan.  Since Christianity's history has been fraught with lust for power, it is prophetic to make sure that the party that is seducing them gets kicked out of office. 

I have become officially partisan.  I am offended by the Republican use of my faith for their own ends.  I will not stand by and let it happen saying that I am above partisanship.  No my friend, I am voting Democrat this year.  It is my prophetic compulsion, even if I am a lone voice crying in the wilderness. 

You got to love You Tube

What happens when Emergent meets Mega Church

So I was out of town last week on a continuing education trip.  It was a major Midwestern city, home to a prominient Emergent church.  I looked up the address of the church and discovered that it was less than two miles from the hotel.  I immediately decided to ditch the last session and worship with them on Sunday.

I also thought that since I had met the pastor on a couple of ocassions, we might could get together and visit.  He is well known in Emergent circles, and I would have loved to get his insight on church starting and the future of Emergent.  I gave him my cell number with the hopes of spending some time with him.  So you can imagine my disappointment, when breaking between sessions, I make my way to the business center of the hotel to check my e-mail, and I get a response, not from him but from his assistant.  I was informed that this emergent star was going to be too busy, but I was welcome to come up to him after the service on Sunday and visit. How very generous of him.

I was pretty ticked to be honest.  Not because he didn't have time for someone he really doesn't know but because he had to get someone else to turn me down.  Emergent describes themselves as a "generative friendship."  A description that I like and buy into.  Answers.com defines "generative" this way:

gen·er·a·tive (jĕn'ər-ə-tĭv, -ə-rā'-)
adj.

1. Having the ability to originate, produce, or procreate.
2. Of or relating to the production of offspring

Originate, produce or procreate a friendship.  I assumed that left room for new people not just those who run in the inner circles.  My guess is that if my name was Doug, Tony, Andrew, Allen or Brian, I would have gotten the respect of a personal decline, if declined at all.  Instead, I got filtered out by some gatekeeper like I was trying to meet Joel Osteen or something.

I love emergent but I have sometimes felt that it was nothing more than a method to promote certain folks that roam in the inner sanctum.  It becomes a great way to sell books, get publicity and grow their churches.  Which makes me wonder if Emergent  is just a vehicle for some to pastor a mega church without having to own a suit and have the ability to drink beer in public.  My experience this past week with this pastor's assistant did nothing to dissuade me.  Maybe this is what happens when Emergent meets Mega Church.  Nothing new!

Death, Taxes and a Southern Football Scandal

I have been a little slack in getting to my blog this month.  I had planned to write about this new shopping center that was approved this week by the Hoover Zoning Board.  550,000 square feet of shopping with 250 homes thrown in for whatever reason.  The shopping center will reside at the junction of Hwy. 150 and Interstate 459.  I was so happy to hear this, Hoover really, really needed some shopping options, they are just so underserved.   

In actuality, I was bummed, because I don't think that will bode well for our own 660,000 (take that Apple Development) shopping center that Colonial is developing here in the great community of McCalla.  When our development was announced the hot rumor was a Target, but then that rumor started to fizzle out.  I tried, but I could not get any confirmation that Target has pulled from the deal. I did hear that Wal-mart (God, please no) had gotten an option to purchase land adjacent to the Colonial development, but nothing that said that Target deal was dead.  But when I read of Hoover greenlighting the project, Target's name (along with Lowe's) was mentioned. Seems like McCalla is going to miss their Target.  Maybe we can at least get a coffee house that serves good coffee.

But then yesterday, the New York Times helped propell a Southern tradition with their expose on academic malingering at auburn University.  You see you have to live in the South a while to understand this, but among the commonly known guarantees in life of death and taxes is a good old fashion football scandal in the summer. 

For any readers who may not live in the South, let me tell you that the one stereotype of the South you have that is probably true is their passion for college football.  We don't have professional ball in Alabama, and while some here confoundingly watch the Braves there is nothing happening in Alabama related to sports.  The sports landscape resembles my unwatered lawn after baking through a July and August sun. Dead!  So what you have is journalist and talkshow hosts who have to actually work for a living and find a story.  Of course,  the two universities in the state usually oblige, but just as you can be sure of the Pope's Catholicism, you can bet there will be sometype of sports related scandal.  It just helps chum the water before the season begins, it gives us something to talk about and help us validate our disdain for our opponent.

Thus far, it has just been petty stuff, stuff that perhaps should jolt us, like a football player driving while high with stolen property, but come on, does a crack head really get excited about having malt 40.  No we need something strong.  We need an adutlerous coach beating a secretary or a drunken coach with hookers or a "Keep it on the down low, cuz" conspiracy.  So today, I offer my kudos to auburn University.  They have trumped the University of Alabama (Peace be upon them) this summer.  With their academic fraud now moved from the rumor mill of the internet to the bastion of journalism, The New York Times, auburn has given us enough to survive another dreadfully, hot, humid, sportsless summer.  Well done, tigers, I knew you wouldn't let us down.

Consumeristic Preaching

I have often felt, though rarely if ever stated, that preaching in most churches has become a commodity. My own preaching continues to evolve and I have found that much of my own training to not be very fruitful for either personal growth or communication.  Along those lines, I found an excellent and thoughful article on this very subject at the always provocative and entertaining  Leadership Blog: Out of Ur: The Myth of Expository Preaching & the Commodification of the Word.

For those interested in the communication of the biblical message in the contemporary church, I encourage you to check it out.

Also my friend Greg Newton has some nicely written comments about statements of belief to which I will give my endorsement.  Not that he wants it or needs it, but there it is anyway.

Happy holiday everyone.

Philanthrophic Considerations

Well this week began with a philanthropic bang.  In case you missed it, Warren Buffett  announced that he would be giving away the bulk of his fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  This gift amounts to approximately 44 billion dollars.  In case you read that wrong, that was BILLIONS with a "b."  I am sure that such a wealth is beyond most of our comprehension, but I do like Buffet's philosophy regarding wealth, legacy, and family planning. 

I have been told, though I haven't confirmed it that Buffet's philosophy regarding what to leave children is as follows, "Leave them enough that they can do anything, but not enough that they can do nothing."  In other words, there is no problem with helping your children but supporting indefinitely or enabling a self aggrandizing lifestyle is not responsible stewardship of the wealth.  The last thing we need is another Paris Hilton running around like the rich brat she is. The Buffett babies will be fine but the world will be better.  Buffet's investing philosophies have been watched, envied and modeled for decades, he is clearly one of the most savvy investors in history.  Now  perhaps, more will model with equal vigor his commitment to giving back.

Made me Laugh

Came across this today.  It made me laugh and pause and contemplate. 

hypocrites-You can go to church with them or go to hell with them. Your Choice.

You can't help but laugh at the Prez

I read out this yesterday but I found this video from The Daily Show that is just great.

On Exiting our Public Schools

I left the Southern Baptist Convention once and for all as an individual in 2000, though I had only been a nominal member going as far back as the early nineties.  I had almost forgotten how ridiculous it could be around convention time, but they never fail to remind me how fortunate I am to have gotten out. So many of my friends and family still participate in SBC churches.  I weep for them. 

Today, the convention will again consider an "exit strategy" from public schools.  Apparently, since they can not take responsibility for themselves about the welfare of their children they have chosen to blame the public school system. 

Well it may surprise many of you who read this blog on any regular basis, that I am actually for this resolution.  I agree that Southern Baptists should pull out of the public school system all together. Let them create an exit strategy.  It may be the very best solution for the children.  In fact, I can't think of anything better for the teachers and children of our public schools than to have the Southern Baptist out of there.  I am sure that most schools will be glad to have you gone. 

Here are just of the few benefits of an massive SBC pullout, as I see ti:

• If I ever have children, I won't have to worry about them being the target object of SBC's fundamentalist nationalism in my child's public school.
• I won't have to remind my child or the many family members that I have that work in the public school system that  as monotheistic Christians, we do not worship a flag, a party, a granite tablet or even a book. 
• I won't  have to worry about my public school teaching wife being confused by political rhetoric baptized in religious language and feeling like an infidel because she didn't hold those particular political views.
• If all the SBC families would start home schooling and private schooling, we could increase our spending per pupil, increase our teacher/ student ratio, and have more manageable school sizes. 
• We, as tax payers, could probably save money, because I am sure that some SBC children get public assistance in the form of free meals.  If they pull out, we wouldn't have to feed them.  In this scenario, everybody wins, because the SBC gets to promote their small government philosophy, and we get to spend more resources on other people groups from whom the SBC is clearly fleeing.

There are other benefits as well.  If you think of some, let me know. 

So I  plead today to the messengers of the SBC.  Vote on an exit strategy and get out!

P.S. I have many dear, dear, friends and family that are in the SBC.  Most of them are sincere Christ followers and I have tremendous respect though sometimes civil disagreement with them.  The above post is satirical in nature, as are many of my posts.  Satire allows for overstatement, which I have generously used.  Please know that I am satirizing an corporate image, not necessarily the individuals that make it up. If after reading this disclaimer you still can't lighten up, then I invite you to develop your own exit strategy from this blog. 

Reversal of Fortune

One of the great scriptural themes is the reversal of fortune.  Saw this picture that I thought was a neat illustration. 

It is a little hard to tell but at the top of that tree is a black bear, and at the bottom if you look closely you will see an orange and white cat named Jack.  Jack treed the bear, not once, but two times!