The Duckie Is Toast

Ok, this is just silly. Clicking on the link below will take you to a website where you can virtually test the power of Kohler's new Class Five flushing toilets. (Who knew these things had a rating system?) I bet someone is tracking how many times the duck gets it. I wish I was clever enough to think of stuff like this.

The Duckie Is Toast

Outrage Fatigue

I honestly do not know how many more of these stories I can hear before I snap. This stupid, illegal war is accomplishing nothing. I sat watching Bob Woodruff (himself badly injured in Iraq) report this story in tears. Our soldiers deserve so much more, beginning with the truth. Why a soldier sent home because he attempted suicide was not on suicide watch is just criminal. How many more stories like this will we hear? There was the young man who shot himself in Michigan or Minnesota because he couldn't get an appointment in time. How many have been permanently mentally damaged by five years of pointless combat? How many prosthetics? How many more have to pay the price for Bush's ego? The American people overwhelmingly want this mess in Iraq to end.

/rant

"Where Is The Accountability?" from ABC News

Barak Obama at Boston University

I'm convinced. We went to see Senator Barak Obama at a political rally and fundraiser at Boston University tonight. He was exciting. He said the right things. His vision of the way Americans need to take government and politics back from special interests is just right. We liked him.

It's Not Just Imus

So, MSNBC droped simulcasting Don Imus, and the next day, CBS Radio dropped Imus completely for really the really stupid, offensive things he said last week about the Rutgers University Women's baskeball team.

I am not under any illusion that MSNBC or CBS Radio had a sudden fit of moral fiber...most if not all of Imus' corporate advertisers pulled out, and apparently, a lot of the employees from both companies internally had a fit about this. Good for them, whatever the real reason. America is getting tired of the crap flowing out of their mouths. Even the outrageous television reality shows that have been popular lately are beginning to have waning ratings.

But its not just Imus. Media Matters details the racist, bigoted, homophobic and sexist things that other talk show hosts both on radio and television have been saying for years. Perhaps we have seen the beginning of a turning tide in our country. Imus still has freedom of speech, he can say whatever he wants. But he no longer has 65 radio stations and MSNBC backing up his hateful, vile speech. No matter what other good things he does, and there are several, his 'shock jock' style is going out of style. Thankfully.

"It's Not Just Imus" at Media Matters

Play Ball!

UPDATE: The Sox handed Seattle their hinders on a platter this afternoon...14-2.

Hooray!

2:05 p.m.

Opening Day at Fenway Park.

Sunny, but cool in the upper 40's.

Josh Beckett gets the start, vs. the Seattle Mariners.

Matsuzaka starts Wednesay night...7:05.

I'm so excited. Wish I was going...I'll just have to watch it on TV.

The Boston Red Sox

What a Horse!

Ok, this was just cool. Dressage is an elegant, ancient sport of training horses to do things they don't ordinarily do, except the rare occasional one. Horses are intelligent, sensitive, highly motivated animals who love to play...and that's what this one was doing on this day. Watch all the way to the end...it is amazing.

Sacramentum Caritatis

Most of you know that my doctoral work is in worship and liturgy. I am always reading the latest research and information about this subject. As has been expected for some time, Benedict XVI has written a response to last year's Synod gathering of Bishops to discuss the role of the Eucharist in the life of the Church.

As Protestants, we make a mistake by ignoring Rome. I certainly would not advocate for us to place ourselves under the authority of the See of Peter...there has been too much history for that to make much sense in the 21st. c. But we must always be striving for Christ's desire that "...they may all be one..." and in doing so, all sides must entertain both the idea that there will have to be concessions made, and that we must start simply. And so, we must read what the other side has to say.

We should take seriously the pastoral and academic gifts of the current Pontiff. While we might disagree with him theologically and ecclesiologically, we cannot deny that he is brilliant; a sensitive Pastor and a skilled theologian and liturgist. This latest writing contains a fascinating summation of Roman Catholic eucharistic theology, and can be instructive for us Protestants as to how to allow the eucharist to become central to our religious lives once again.

I'm going to propose to my professor that I be allowed to write a response to this document as my final project for the semester. Perhaps it will be published. I've attached a link below, it's a long read but, I think, worth it. A friend and colleage even suggested that it might make a good Lenten reflection. I think he's right.

Sacramentum Caritatis

Take me out to the ball game...

30 days until opening day at Fenway Park.

The Boston Red Sox Home Page

Rachael Ray and Dunkin' Donuts

The news that our favourite coffee shop here in New England is going to hire local gal Rachael Ray has caused no small amount of consternation among the populace. The Boston Globe online discussion board about this is one of the longest I've ever seen. (I'm not going to link to it...it's snarkier and meaner than I could imagine being, but if yer wicked smaht you'll figure out how to find it on boston.com. I expect that some marketing VP's email inbox has burst into flame several times over the past few days. Perhaps this ad campaign will be short lived.

We're a provincial people, New Englanders. Starbucks has made a good stab at being successful here, but DD still outsells Starbucks 2 to 1. Krispy Kreme didn't make it, mostly because they cooked the books (so to speak) but also because two outside chains trying to compete for local coffee dollars wasn't going to work. Opinions vary about the coffee at DD (too weak, or just right...), at Starbucks (too strong or just right...), about the atmosphere, the food, the corporate atmosphere...(DD isn't so good about having full time workers with benefits...but neither is Starbucks).

Me, I like Dunkin' Donuts better than just about anything else. Starbucks, Seattle's Best, even Krispy Kreme's coffee always tastes too strong and bitter for me, even the light varieties.

I'll have a regular, please. (And here, that means cream and sugar.)

Say it ain't so!

So, my intent to have a nice day lasted until just after lunch, when it was announced that my favourite Dunkin' Donuts coffee chain was going to hire Rachael Ray to be their spokesperson.

We are not amused.

It's a nice day.

I'm just old enough to remember the time before the internet. Or, at least, the time before most of the world had immediate access to it. I've spent this morning catching up on emails, reading the news, listening to WBUR, Facebooking my friends (is it a verb, really?) and generally sitting in the my office at home catching up on the world. It has been pleasant. I have a cat on my lap and a cup of really good coffee. It has become a nice morning ritual...and my day goes better if I have about an hour each morning to sit here, wake up, and get caught up with news, friends and email.

I've noticed however, that the web can be not very nice. With things like the little videos of the unbelievably stupid things that people do, the vast amount of porn (I'm told...) and untold amounts of just utter crap, the web is really not a very nice place. You have to work a little bit to find nice things on the web. It strikes me that my own 'blog occasionally contributes to the snarkiness and unpleasantness of the web. Everyone now has a vehicle through which they can vent and rant, or a place to demonstrate to the world that the human race is doomed to extinction, one Jackass-style stunt at a time. To be sure, this immediate access to information can only help in some ways...I read blogs and news feeds that keep me informed as to what my Government is up to, something that can only help.

So today, I am going to try to have a nice day. I hope you have one too. My coffee cup is empty and I am now fully awake. Time to get ready to go to work and spend time with my students.

Said Sinclair Lewis...

"...when fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross."

I've copied the stuff below from another web site. I've seen it across the web and in various emails. It's scary...

Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed
to the government's policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

Frederick the Field Mouse

I added a photo to the sidebar of the cover of my favorite Children's book "Frederick the Field Mouse" by Leo Leonni. Rather than scurry about all summer gathering seeds and grain, Frederick gathers light, and colours, and birdsongs. The other mice are critical. As you can imagine, winter sets in, and its grim. As it wears on and the food runs out, the other field mice turn to him , whereupon he offers back to them the light and warmth of summer, the sound of long silenced birdsongs, and in doing so helps them to get through the dreariest part of winter.

Ministry is a bit like this, I think. Our society sometimes wonders what use ministers and priests are. We're called, I think, to remind the people around us in the grimmest, darkest parts of their lives that there is light, and music, and beauty, and love. Simplistic? Maybe. But I'm going to spend this summer gathering in the light, listening to nature, and storing up colours.

There is hope...

I've found out yesterday that I have been invited to preach a 'neutral pulpit' sermon for a church that is interested in me. The Association Minister for the area pulled off a minor miracle and found a church for me to preach at in just over a day, on a Sunday coming up soon. The covenantal relationship that UCC churches share with one another asks that when churches are searching for a new pastor, the other churches in the area sometimes make their pulpits available for the search committee to hear pastors preach in a 'neutral' pulpit...one where the pastor and committee are unknown. It's not the best system, but it works most of the time. I'll be preaching in a church smaller than the one interested in me, and in a rural rather than an urban setting, but it will be fine. I'm looking forward to it. The pastor of the church where I will be preaching is a gracious man, and was hoping for a Sunday off soon anyway. I am grateful. As part of the service, I'll be giving the first children's sermon I've given in over five years...unless you count my University students as large children!

Dear Mr. President

(I originally wrote this letter in 2005. It seems that not much has changed. As usual with letters and emails I send to the White House, I had printed my address and phone number at the bottom, just so the Secret Service would not have trouble finding me. )

Dear Mr. President;

I want to thank you for making my job so much harder.

I spent today counseling four students here at Boston University.

One has had his National Guard unit activated, and will be going to Iraq within two months. He has just started his senior year here at Boston University, and would really liked to have finished his degree. Now, he will be withdrawing from school and flying to Iraq to fight in a war that he does not support. It is likely that he will return maimed, psychologically scarred, or in a box.

One just found out that her brother was killed in Iraq this week, just a few weeks before he was to come home. His unit had been kept in Iraq for almost a year longer than they were supposed to have been there.

One just found out that because of the budget cuts that you have proposed, her financial aid package has been drastically cut, and she will be unable to afford to continue studying here at Boston University. She has just started her junior year, just declared her major, and is a brilliant, articulate young woman who now thinks that she will have to finish her college career at a local community college. You, as a Yale graduate, should understand that graduating from Massachusetts Bay Community College will certainly not give her the same opportunities as graduating from Boston University.

One student came to me so upset about the lies that you and your administration have told, that she is withdrawing from Boston University to attend college in Canada. She spent this weekend with her grandmother and was shocked at how obtuse and complicated the new Medicare prescription drug plan is. She reports that her grandmother has stopped taking pills essential to her health because she can now no longer afford them and can't figure out how to get the new plan to pay for them.

This was a group of four students on one day here at one University. They are all voters. They are all citizens. They are some of the brightest and best of our young people and through the direct actions that you and your Administration have promoted, they are all now disenfranchised, disillusioned, and disgusted with you, your politics, and the United States Government. It is no wonder that your approval ratings are so low, and lower even still with this age group.

So you have put me in the position of having to spend time trying to explain to these students why this is happening. How do I explain to these young people that their Government cares more about an illegal war that kills, about federal spending priorities that favor military might over the development of the mind? How do I explain to them that they need to look at the bigger picture about how all of this is eventually going to make America stronger?

I don't actually expect, Mr. President, that you will see this email, since it is reported in the news that you rarely look at information that does not fit with your world view. I hope you do see this. I want you to know how you are affecting the American people. Do you realize that the profits from just one of the oil companies over the past year would completely wipe out all student loan debt currently owed? Think about how much stronger the economy would be if the brightest and best of our citizens were not paying thousands of dollars every month in student loans? Or, think about how much stronger our economy would be if we did not have to worry about how we were going to care for ourselves and our parents as we got older?

I will not defend your policies or laws to my students. Your government is an utter failure. You had a surplus going in, now we have a deficit, and defying every logical precept, you continue to cut taxes when we are at war. We were at peace. Now, we have attacked a country that was not a threat, was not involved in 9/11. Your policies are an utter failure. There are people in America today who are more hungry, not less, who are making less money than five years ago, not more, who are worse off now than when you took office and it is all your fault. You can no longer blame any of this on the Democrats, this is all yours.

So, thank you, Mr. President. I will continue to see students for counseling who will need my services as a direct result of the lies, warfare, budget cuts and disillusionment that you have perpetrated on the American people. As for my students, I pray that they will be safe, will be able to finish college, and will be able to take care of those they love. You should sit with me for an afternoon and listen....

Information for Search Committees

I've created a second 'blog specifically for Search Committees.

Information For Search Committees

Update on Tabloid Journalism

Just for my friend Kyle...

Fox Chooses Anna Nichole Over Iraq War Story

Tabloid Journalism

"What drove a bubblegum pop princess to become a head-shaving rehab patient?"

This headline at the top of the Yahoo! website annoys me.

I want to know who really cares? All of these 'celebutantes', young women with little talent who lead lives that are slow-motion train wrecks are not interesting on a national scale. They're not really newsworthy and every day, the networks, the major cable news stations, serious websites like the one mentioned above all insist on delving into the lives of these people as if it mattered to the nation.

It doesnt.

It's gossip, not news. It's fodder for People magazine, or for the National Enquirer, or for Entertainment Tonight. Not for the evening news.

I wish our news agencies would stop reporting on Anna Nichole Smith, Brittney Spears, Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton, Jessica Simpson, or any of these other women. Their lives are sadly appalling and we simply don't need to know the details about them. Don't get me wrong...I feel bad for them and for the people that love and care about them...but we simply don't need to know every salacious detail about their lives.

I've stopped watching CNN or using its web site because of the explosion of breathlessly torrid tabloidesque stories. They are little better these days than FOX 'news'. Perhaps someday, the news agencies will figure out that there are more important things to tell the American people.

/rant.

Confession for Ash Wednesday

Friends in Christ, every year at this time, we celebrate our redemption through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lent is a time to prepare for this celebration and to renew our life in the paschal mystery.

We begin this holy season by acknowledging our need for repentance, and for the mercy and forgiveness proclaimed in the Gospel of Jesus. We begin our journey to Easter with the sign of ashes. This ancient sign speaks of the frailty and uncertainty of human life, and marks publicly our sincere desire for penitence.

I invite you then, in the name of Christ, to observe a holy Lent, by self examination, and penitence, by prayer and fasting, by works of love, and by reading and meditating on the Word of God. Let us bow before God, our Creator and Redeemer, and confess our sin. Most Holy and merciful God…


We confess to you and to one another, and to the whole communion of saints in heaven and on earth, that we have sinned by fault, by our own fault, by our most grievous fault, in thought, word and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole hearts, minds, and strengths. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have not forgiven others as we have been forgiven. Have mercy on us.

We have been deaf to your call to serve as Christ served us. We have not been true to the mind of Christ. We have grieved your Holy Spirit,
Have mercy on us, Lord.

We confess to you, Lord, all our past unfaithfulness. Our daily pride, hypocrisy, and impatience,
we confess to you, Lord.

Our self-indulgent appetites and ways, and our exploitation of other peoples,
we confess to you, Lord.

Our anger at our own frustration and our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves,
we confess to you, Lord.

Our intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, and our dishonesty in daily life and work,
we confess to you, Lord.

Our negligence in prayer and worship, and our failure to commend the faith that is in us,
we confess to you, Lord.

Our blindness to human need and suffering, and our indifference to injustice and cruelty,
we confess to you, Lord.

Our false judgments, our uncharitable thoughts toward our neighbors, and our prejudice and contempt for those who are different from us,
we confess to you, Lord.

Our waste and pollution of your creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us,
we confess to you, Lord. Restore us, God, and let your anger depart from us. Hear us, Lord, for your mercy is great. Amen

A Holy Lent

A Holy Lent

Sermon preached at Marsh Chapel at Boston University
Ash Wednesday – February 21, 2007 – 6:30 p.m.

Audio Link Here

Texts: Ps. 51 (in Choir anthem), 2 Cor 5:20-6:10, Matthew 6:1-6, 16-20

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Grace and peace to you on this solemn evening.

You might be thinking that this service is a real downer…a joy-kill, sad, depressing, call it what you will. There’s no escaping it…we’ve just spent the beginning of this evening’s service confessing every sort of shortcoming and failing we have as individuals and as a people, and, you might note, there has not yet been a moment when I or one of the other clergy have declared to you that we are forgiven for those shortcomings. The music is in a minor key, there is lots of silence, and in a moment, we are all going to leave here bearing an ancient symbol of grief and penitence on our foreheads.

No, there is nothing about this service that one could call joyous. And so it sticks out, sticks in our minds, doesn’t it? Further, we seem to be doing exactly the thing that the Gospel writer warned us against…our penitence and grief over our shortcomings before God is, for a few moments, quite publicly seen.

It is, as I said in the introduction to our Confession this evening, the opportunity we as Christians take to prepare for the annual celebration of the Resurrection of Christ. For the joyous truth of the matter is that we are forgiven, we are a people born anew, born from above, who, through baptism have been brought by adoption out of the darkness and into the light, through the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. More about that in six weeks.

Meanwhile, I hope that you are actually sitting there enjoying the music, and the introspective nature of this service. Rather than seeing it as a scolding thing to remind you of what bad children you’ve been, I hope that you are relishing the opportunity for challenge. Yes, challenge. For the next six weeks, Christians are given the opportunity, the challenge to reflect on the meaning of faith, the state of your spiritual well being. Some are preparing to be Baptised or Confirmed, or to join the church and we hope as do all Christians that those so engaged will have a productive and rewarding experience.

Six weeks is a long time. In a culture where the length of sermons is determined by our listener’s attention span (conditioned to blocks of eight minutes, the length of time between commercials on television…) eight minutes is long, sixteen is even longer, and, as we are accustomed to on Sunday mornings here at Marsh Chapel, twenty-four minutes can seem like a virtual eternity. How could we ever hope to focus on a Lenten discipline for six whole weeks? The task seems impossible, and for many, not worth even trying.

I’ve overheard or been part of discussions with several people over the past week or so regarding what each person is going to ‘give up’ for Lent. An admirable practice, but I’m always fascinated by the answers I get when I ask ‘why?’ Most respond that it was their tradition growing up, and they’ve never really thought much about it. For some, it was a religious obligation required by their various faith traditions. For others, it is something they have taken on as adults, but with little reason except that it seems to be something that Christians ‘do’ during Lent. (That is true, it IS something that some Christians do during Lent…but is that a sufficient enough reason?)

This idea of giving up chocolate or coffee or alcohol or cigarettes during Lent does no good if it is not tied to the idea that this period of time, this Lent, is the time for real spiritual discernment, reflection and growth. If the action of giving up some perceived vice is not tied to prayer, reflection, discernment, spiritual self examination, and (as a result of all of that internal work) a real substantive growth, then it is to no avail. You will go right back to eating too much chocolate or drinking too much coffee or alcohol or even back to smoking on Easter Sunday afternoon.

Now, that might have sounded a bit stern. Please do NOT hear my sermon as an instruction to not even try because you certainly are going to fail. No attempts at self-improvement and spiritual discernment are ever wasted. What I am saying to you is that this is indeed can be a special time in your life…take it seriously!

The Gospel lesson for tonight provides for us a way to have a ‘holy’ lent.

First, pray.

And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Then, fast.

And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Give something up for Lent, if you must. Or, refrain from eating certain things, but only after you’ve prayed about it and for God’s sake, don’t complain five weeks into Lent about it!

Finally, in gratitude for Christ’s redemption, do works of Love.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Now, these things; prayer, fasting, charity seem to me to be the very things that we are called to do EVERY DAY as Christians, are we not? Remember the bit at the beginning of my sermon where I spoke about the bright and glorious resurrection of Jesus that we will celebrate in six weeks? We can do nothing but rejoice in that. For Christians, the fact of the empty tomb compels us daily prayer, to refrain from those things that are harmful for us, and to be loving. Simple, isn’t it? So, perhaps this service and this season is no so much of a drag after all…just the opportunity to remember how we, as Christians, should live every day. Maybe, just maybe, a Holy Lent will become a holy life.

Thanks be to God.