Jesus Christ in the jury pool

Saw this item online just now. The headline reads, "Jesus Christ dumped from jury pool," or something like that.

I want to meet Jesus some day, but I'm not sure I want him (or in this case, her) sitting in the jury box.

(Wait a minute? Isn't that part of Jesus Christ's job? I mean, the real JC, not some pretender who changed her name. Isn't Jesus going to "pass judgement" on us; decide if we're going to heaven or hell? That is, if we believe in a hell. Hmmm.... I'll have to ponder on this one some more.)

Our new word for today: hyperintegrated

Read a fascinating article in the Lakeland Ledger recently, from Thomas Friedman, one of my favorite authors. Friedman gave me a new word in his column: hyperintegrated.

Hyperintegrated, says Friedman, means that "all aspects of production -- raw materials, design, manufacturing, distribution, fulfillment, financing and branding -- have become commodities that can be accessed from anywhere by anyone."

In other words, as Walt Disney himself best said it, "It's a small world after all."

Two things, Friedman writes, that can't be hyperintegrated, one of which is imagination. (Again, a Disney theme...)

"America," Friedman writes, "is still the world's greatest dream machine." Better than China, better than Britain, better than Japan, better than... fill in the blank.

The other item that can't be a commodity is good government "which can harvest creativity." In that arena, Friedman writes, "we may be losing" the battle.

Friedman then goes on to talk about six things that have "fractured our public space and paralyze our ability to forge optimal solutions." (How's THAT for business-speak?) In this area, Friedman points out how narrow-casting has become standard operating procedure for the United States: "cable TV (that)... segregates people into their own echo chambers"; "The Internet... which at its worst provides a home for every extreme view and spawns digital lynch mobs..."; "A U.S. business community that has become so globalized that it comes to Washington to lobby only for its own narrow interests."

Friedman's column gives voice to my feelings that the world is becoming more and more self-centered, more and more "silo-ed," and more and more disconnected.

With that message in mind, it appears the church--as usual--has its work cut out for it. But what do we do when the church finds itself mirroring the world?

Christ for the world we write

The United Methodist Church's Council of Bishops has come out with their most recent pastoral letter, "God's Renewed Creation: A Call to Hope and Action." (You can read the actual letter here.)

The bishops--God love 'em-- are calling for United Methodists and others around the world to offer themselves as "instruments" of God's "renewing Spirit in the world." They offer three concrete actions: 1) orienting our lives towards God's holy vision; 2) practicing social and environmental holiness; and 3) living and acting in hope.

I am glad to hear that clarion call for hope. In our world today, fear is the main currency traded in the arena of public discourse (Glen Beck, Lou Dobbs, Keith Olberman, Rush Limbaugh, etc.). The pundits and politicians of our post-9/11 society seem to be experts in fear mongering, cynicism and sarcasm, and it is the church's job--and the bishops are doing this--to provide an antidote to all this: hope.

The bishops also issue nine "pledges" that they say they will take moving forward. One of them--#6--states that bishops will measure the carbon footprint of their episcopal and denominational offices and determine how to reduce it. That's a very good thing... and a great model to pass along to our local churches. Imagine if all 34,000+ churches did that! It would have a huge impact.

Here in Florida, we're buidling a new Conference Center. I know that our board of trustees has taken this "green building" idea seriously, even to the point of doing some things that will be beneficial to the environment but harmful to the bottom line (in the short run). For this, our leaders should be applauded.

Another important pledge is #5: "We pledge to advocate for justice and peace in the halls of power in our respective nations and international organizations." I want us, as United Methodists, to hold the bishops accountable for this one. I would love to see a report, in about 6 or 12 months time, that shows what each bishop did to advocate for justice and peace in the halls of power.

Our own bishop, Tim Whitaker, does this on a regular basis when he comes to Tallahassee for Florida Advocacy Days at Children's Week. I've seen the bishop meet with the governor, the president of the senate, and other key lawmakers, urging them to keep children a priority as they go through their budget-making process. I hope other bishops follow this kind of advocacy work, too.

But my favorite is #9: "We pledge more effective use of the church and community webpages to inspire and share what we learn. We celebrate the communications efforts that tell the stories of struggle and transformation within our denomination."

As one whose ministry is sharing those stories, I'm tickled to death to have the bishops' support.

I wonder if the pope will play 'Farmville'?

Breaking news from the Vatican today. The Roman Catholic Church is hosting a four-day symposium for its bishops and others on how it intends to use the Internet--including social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter--to tell its story. You can read the story here. The article states that executives from Facebook and Twitter are showing how the Catholic Church can use their communication's tools to reach a younger audience.

What this proves to me is that the more things change, the more they stay the same when it comes to the church. Much like how the Vatican reacted to the moveable printing press of Gutenberg ("You mean, everyone can read Bible now?"), Catholic Church officials have been very slow in adapting to changing communications technologies. The story also mentions how Pope Ratzinger... err, Benedict... got caught with egg on his face when he re-instated a Cardinal who, it turns out, believes the Holocaust didn't happen. A simple Google search would have turned up this information, the article points out, but apparently no one either did that search... or knew how.

So much to do!

Sorry, I've been away from the blog for a few days, keeping very busy with work and other activities. Since I've been away, of course, there's been a lot of stuff to comment on.

One item that is drawing major attention is the recent shooting at Fort Hood, Texas. (There was another shooting the very next day in downtown Orlando that didn't draw the national headlines, but it caught a lot of attention down here. If really got my attention because the police closed I-4 in both directions for several hours, causing huge traffic jams, one of which I got caught in.)

The shootings at Fort Hood have drawn a lot of venom towards the shooter (for obvious reasons,) but one area in which there seems to be a lot of anger is due to the the shooter's religion. He's Muslim. Cary McMullen, the monkish scribe of religion at my hometown newspaper, the Lakeland Ledger, comments on his blog that anti-Muslim rhetoric seems to be spewing forth at a mighty rate.

I would agree with McMullen. As I was stuck in traffic last Friday due to the shootings in Orlando, I was scanning the AM radio dial, looking for traffic updates when I came across a talk show host named Michael Medved. I had not heard him in years, and his show was just starting, so I thought, what the heck, I'll listen for a bit to see what he says.

Sure enough, the anti-Muslim stuff started right away. It was just another example of how fast people are to label Muslim's who commit violence a "terrorist."

I wonder -- when that guy in Cleveland (now dubbed "The Cleveland Strangler") first came to light, did anyone look at HIS religion? I mean, here's a guy who alledgedly killed 11 people (at least). This is hideous stuff! But is he a Christian? A Jew? A Hindu? I can't find a thing to tell me.

Something seems to tell me that the Strangler's religion ain't important because he's not Muslim.

Just not fair, in my humble opinion.

Pearls before Swine

I'm a huge fan of Stephan Pastis and his cartoon strip, "Pearls before Swine." If you come to my office, you'll see numerous cartoon strips tacked on the bulletin board just outside my door. You'll also see the clock (which I refuse to set back to Eastern Standard Time) that my daughter got me for Christmas. Then there's the "Hullllooooooooo Zeeba Neighbah!" sticker on my printer. And so on and so on.

Pastis has been blogging for a lot longer than I have. You can read it here. Lately, Pastis has been blogging from Kuwait and Iraq. He's there, apparently, with a group of other cartoonists on some kind of a goodwill mission. I think that's a great idea, but I really think this is just a way for a group of guys to get together and have a good time.

Pastis' blog, however, does point out some of the dangers of being over there, and the dangers our service men and women face on a daily basis. Someday soon, I hope, these women and men will be back home where they belong. In the meantime, we can thank people like Pastis for bringing a little light in the midst of the heat of battle.

Oh, this'll be fun...

Article online today from the Tampa Tribune that will raise a few eye-brows where I live. According to article here, a small group of atheists in Lakeland (my adopted home town) have begun to advertise the fact that they even exist. And by small, I mean a group of about 12 people.

What they've done is put up a billboard (you can see it by clicking on the story link, above) that simply says, "Don't believe in God? You are not alone."

The article says that the billboard will be up for about the next 10 weeks or so--in other words, through the Christmas holidays.

So I'm guessing that this billboard will raise more ruckus than Max during the Wild Things movie (which isn't very good in my humble opinion; the book was/is better). I can hear the screams now from religious leaders in this town, lamenting the fact that this billboard is even allowed in our public domain.

As a practicing member of a faith tradition that has spent thousands of dollars on marketing/advertising, I know how effective these billboards can be. Thousands of people will read this one, solitary billboard. And you know what? That's okay with me. I'm a huge proponent of the right to freedom of speech. I may not agree with what you're saying, but I will defend your right to say it.

Of course the religious people will disagree with atheists; that's a given. In allowing for a diversity of opinion in the court of public opinion, however, "we the people" grow stronger. And those who feel threatened by this billboard really need to ask themselves why they are feeling that way. If anything, it should be a wake-up call to those of us who profess Christ as Lord to get out there and show the world what that really means (hint: it's not pushy evangelism, mere handing out feedbags, nor stuffy boring worship services; it's about being Christ's body in serving the poor, speaking/acting out against injustice, and one beggar telling another beggar where to find food).

Any way, this will be fun to watch, just to see who says what and how fast. Stay tuned!

A Glimpse of the Kingdom

Great story today from Suzy Keenan and United Methodist News Service, about a remarkable worship service last weekend in Philadelphia. You can read the full story here.

The story is about how two churches that split over segregation more than 220 years ago came together in worship for the first time since then. And the split changed the face of America.

As Keenan writes, "In the 1780’s, Richard Allen and Absalom Jones became the first African-American lay preachers at St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church, licensed by Francis Asbury, Methodism’s first bishop in America. The growing number of African members brought in by Allen and Jones led to the building of a balcony, completed in 1792. With the balcony came segregated seating. One Sunday when Jones was forcibly moved by a church trustee from where he was praying, Allen and Jones led a walk out of the African-American members. Allen began Mother Bethel Church, whose struggles with the overseeing church, St. George’s, continued with a “long, distressing and expensive lawsuit” over rights to self-determination. In 1816, the Supreme Court decided in favor of Mother Bethel, and Allen founded the African Methodist Episcopal denomination."

You know, in the society and culture that we live in--often divided by race, politics, etc.,--it just does my heart good to get a glimpse of the Kingdom every now and then.

Where did that chocolate bar come from?

Cary McMullen, the religion writer for my local newspaper, the Lakeland Ledger, has a great blog entry about chocolate. Specifically, McMullen reports on some news from the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society that most of the chocolate we're going to eat for Halloween (and all year round, for that matter), comes from child labor.

Makes me think twice about how that chocolate got into my hands, and into my mouth.

You can read McMullen's blog here... which is always good and one of my must-reads every day.

Off to a good start

The opening worship for UMAC this year was at the Upper Room Chapel, in the General Board of Discipleship Building in Nashville. The music was amazing! The preaching, very nice. Bishop Sally Dyck (Minnesota) brought the keynote at lunch, noting that the author of the Gospel of Mark must be the Patron Saint of Journalists, since he invented a new form of communication: the gospel. She also talked about how "immediate" everything was/is for Mark...he obviously must have been on a deadline.

We're on a break right now, and a group of us from the Southeastern Jurisdiction will be getting together for dinner tonight. It's also the highlight of UMAC...the chance to network and fellowship with others doing the same ministry as I am.

Blogging from UMAC

At the moment, I'm sitting in the Tampa Airport (which is freezing inside right now--someone needs to turn down the AC!), waiting for my flight to Nashville for the annual United Methodist Association of Communicators meeting. I'll be blogging from the meeting through Friday, so that should be fun. Stay tuned.

This just makes me ill

I saw an AP story in my local newspaper this morning that just churned my stomach. The story reveals how some Christian clergy in Africa are claiming that children--yes, children--are witches. An "increasing number of children in Africa (are) accused of witchcraft by pastors and then tortured or killed, often by family members. Pastors were involved in half of 200 cases of 'witch children' reviewed by the AP, and 13 churches were named in the case files."

If ever there was a reason for The United Methodist Church to expand its outreach in Africa (like it needed another!), this is it. As Paul Harvey used to say, "We are not one world. Yet."

The story is here.

Something in the air

Don't get me wrong; I love Southwest Airlines. One reason I love them is because they don't charge to stow a bag in the belly of the plane. Am I the only one who recalls the original reason airlines started charging cold, hard cash for bags? As I remember, the airlines said they needed to charge because the price of oil (jet fuel) had gone through the roof and that these baggage fees were temporarily needed to offset the steep increase. Well...guess what? The price of oil is now about one-quarter where it was back then ($75 per barrell today), but the baggage fees remain.

And they're a cash cow for the airlines.

I read this article that notes Southwest Airlines is looking for other revenue streams instead of the checked-bag feed trough. The article notes, "(Southwest) also expects to take in about $40 million a year for heavy bags or bags beyond the first two. Other carriers have claimed ten times that much in baggage revenues."

Ten times???

Remember when flying used to be fun?

I've got a secret

Just had the latest issue of "Divinity" magazine plopped on my desk, published by Duke University. Cover story is about www.postsecret.com, and how (if?) it relates to the church. People send in postcards to the Web site, writing down their deepest secrets. The Web master, Frank Warren, sifts through the 1,000 or so he gets every week and posts the 20 most relevant/poignant/funny/sad entries. Warren was at Duke for a lecture last March, according to the magazine, and drew a large crowd. My favorite quote from the article came from Paul Griffiths, who teaches Catholic theology at Duke. He said that PostSecret and the Catholic sacrament of penance are different. "The urge behind [sending in a postcard] is the same as what developed the Catholic tradition, but with one fundamental difference," he said. "For Catholics, it's not about making public announcements, but firmly intending an amendment to one's life. That second aspect is lacking in PostSecret."

So I made the local newspaper today in an article about the closing of a church where I've been volunteer pastor for the past two+ years. You can see the article here. It's never fun to close a church, and this was the first time I've ever had to do this. It's not like we couldn't see this coming; the church had been in financial trouble for years before I arrived (along with three other volunteer pastors). I'm curious to know what others may think about lessons to be learned from closing a church.