For the Beauty of the Earth

The first thing that popped into my mind when I saw this article about a fundamentalist legislator
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/13/john-shimkus-climate-change_n_782664.html were hymns about God's creative power.  "For the Beauty of the Earth", "This Is My Father's World", "How Great Thou Art", "Morning Has Broken", "All Things Bright and Beautiful"...  just the start of a list to which I'm sure you could add your favorites.

What I find stunning with the pervasive ignorance of those who regard climate change as not impacted by our profligate abuse of our environment and the overwhelming evidence supported by 98% of all scientific authority on the subject -- is they support the abuse of the environment by abusing scripture.

As the article noted Rep. Shimkus, likely to head a House Committee on Energy and Commerce, brings his considerable skills as a biblical interpreter to his legislative agenda: "I believe that's [the Bible] the infallible word of God, and that's the way it's going to be for his creation," Shimkus said.
Having concluded that the Bible doesn't allow for any destruction by Flood (see the covenant with Noah in Genesis 9) it will only be destroyed should God will it.  I guess there is room for us to destroy it by nuclear weapons -- if it be God's will -- but basically we have little to say about how everything is going to end.

God must have been wasting breath when we were charged with being caretakers of the earth and everything in it -- see Genesis 1.  While Rep. Shimkus might agree with the notion of Dominion Theology -- that the earth is ours to subdue and rule over as we see fit -- I would suggest that the declaration of God for us to be stewards of the environment comes ahead of that part of the story where we screw everything up.

Well ... Adam screws it up by listening to Eve who was duped by a wily serpent.  A brilliant myth by the way, right!?!   But you would think that the perfection of creation, having been ruined by the advent of selfishness and sin might have changed the game a bit.  Prior to 'the Fall' humankind would have operated without sin and sought only the good of creation -- after 'the Fall' humankind suffered the decline of the earth's bounty and reaped a future that was harsh and aggressive.  While God might have willed the sustaining beauty of the earth become the provenance of humankind, the flaw was letting us have free will.  With that reality all bets are off -- as are the capacities of human beings to act without fail as God would wish.

Fundamentalism, with its faith-less reading of scripture, believes that the innerant 'Word of God' trumps everything -- reason, science, common-sense, observable reality by the most untutored of us.  (Even the most ignorant have to wonder why glaciers are retreating at a pace unheard of in centuries -- more about this below)  Conveniently this bizarre reading of the Bible links up closely with the Republican interest in unfettered capitalist exploitation of the resources the earth has to offer.  In an immoral twist on being stewards the assumption is that if it's good for BP and DuPont it must comport with God's will -- I mean if God didn't want us to have cheap oil and defoliants God wouldn't have put those substances into the creation!  By-products are the price we pay for driving comfort and insect repellent.  Bad water, lung disease, spoiled landscapes and famine are the price we pay for listening to ignorant and selfish people who put profits above 'loving their neighbors as themselves'.  (If they could only love everyone into the halls of power like they love themselves, what a different world it might be.)

Natural theology understands that God's purposes and presence can be found in the created order.  And as we review the works of the Psalmists we can acknowledge that ancient articulations about God's blessings are inextricably linked with the power and beauty of creation.  The reality that "rocks and trees and skies and seas, his hands the wonders wrought" finds its way into modern hymns is a testimony to our deep appreciation of God's handiwork.

Thankfully, it may be the impact of legislators like Mr. Shimkus that will begin to light a fire under some Americans who can see stupid when it rears its blockish head.  With the rising number of evangelicals who are willing to acknowledge that good Biblical interpretation compels us to good stewardship we might have an ability for some conservatives to brunt the impact of bad policy drawn from bad hermeneutics.  Hopefully some effective alliances can develop around core human rights and values that will bring progressive evangelicals and mainline Christians together.

To circle back to comments made above concerning the retreat of glaciers those who like to debunk climate change -- consider Nobel Prize winning scientist Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma -- who thinks global warming is a hoax.  While it is true that a study of ancient climates see change as a recurring phenomena throughout unrecorded and recorded history -- for those who follow Bishop Usher's understanding of the creation occurring on Sunday, October 23, 4004 B.C. (or B.C.E. for ecumenical purists) as per Biblical inerrancy all those fossils and carbon dating are a nuisance of course.  But it doesn't really matter.  To equate 2010 with the Little Ice Age -- a period of cooling after a warm medieval age -- is absolutely bizarre.  How does the 13th century compare in any way with the early 21st?  Well -- there are people and horses and cats.  Lots of things that appear to be the same.  Except that in the year 1,200 A.D. (C.E. for ecumenical purists) the head counters estimate that the world contained roughly 450 million people.  That is almost exactly the total combined population of the U.S. (310) and Russia (142) today.  I wonder if population differences make any impact?  Do you think that the Indian subcontinent, which had 125 million people in 1750 -- when they rode in carts and rowed and sailed their boats -- and now has 1.5 billion people driving cars without smog controls, burning diesel to travel by water, and consuming enormous amounts of natural resources might be making a difference in global weather conditions?  Well ... duh!

I'm excited -- I hope you are -- with the election of people who will be guided by narrow interpretations of ancient texts that actually weren't intended to provide road-maps to public policy 20-30 centuries after their creation.  What I do know is that scripture speaks to the deep faith expression that God gifted creation to creatures who have to take responsibility for its maintenance, protection, and sustaining.  As the Psalmist says: 'we are fearfully and wonderfully made' (139:14) ... that doesn't mean we should be fearful of course.  So I will pray that 'warmer' heads prevail as the climate discussion goes on.   Thanks for reading this and letting me grind my teeth in your direction!

Meanwhile I'll sing familiar hymns and trust in God:  verse 3 of a favorite hymn:

This is my Father's world.  
 O let me ne'er forget 
 that though the wrong seems oft so strong, 
 God is the ruler yet.  
 This is my Father's world:  
 why should my heart be sad?  
 The Lord is King; let the heavens ring!  
 God reigns; let the earth be glad!

--  and offer this as a gift for your listening pleasure -- it is a favorite group, Eden's Bridge, singing "Whole Earth":http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNCjgRn-Lw4.  Check them out -- it's worth your time!

Have a blessed Sabbath!

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Communication 101

Some people have a real gift with words.  Perhaps the greatest speech, at least in the English language, is Lincoln's Gettysburg Address: "Four score and seven years ago".  You could never write a speech like that today ... too much time has gone by.

I digress: There may be an argument as to the greatest speech in the English language of course.  Julius Caesar is eulogized by Mark Antony in the play "J.C"  (not that JC ... Julius Caesar!) with the grandiose "Friends, Romans, countryman, lend me your ears..." ... which of course, Mark Antony never really said ... it is a piece of fiction!  Darn good fiction though.  So in the running for a real speech of course has to be M.L. King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream Speech" ... which is far and away gonna have a better delivery and cadence than either Mark Anthony -- despite the iambic pentameter -- and more engaging and memorable than Lincoln's speech.  Which, by the time the reporters present sharpened their pencils was over.

273 words -- by my count (which means give or take a few).  If you read it somewhat slowly out loud it will last about 2-3 minutes.  Edward Everett preceded Lincoln's speech with one of his own ... it lasted two hours!  (That's a couple months of sermons!).  Not only is Everett's speech not remembered -- it isn't likely to be read or memorized.  Lincoln's on the other hand lives on.  As even Everett noted in a letter to Lincoln after the event:  "I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes."   Or in more Lincolnesque language: "you said it better than I did, faster too."

I undigress:  Reading HuffingtonPost.com is often entertaining and enlightening at the same time.  There's a new web site.  Going viral.  It is called: http://whattheheckhasobamadonesofar.com and it says in a succinct way what Obama and his Adminstration have been terrible at saying.  Simply describing their accomplishments.  Of course, this link is the sanitized, PG version... just substitute another four-letter word for 'heck' and you'll get the R rated (maybe PG-13, I don't know anymore what the line is for smut and naughtiness) version.

In either case three bright young people decided to mine the record for a list of some of the accomplishments of the Obama presidency and ... voila!  There they are ... page after page of them.  With links to the factual details.  Not everyone will agree that these are 'accomplishments' but as my friend Barbara Sharry says in response to my disappointment expressed in my last blog entry, also my first blog entry:  "I think the President fell on his own sword to get the healthcare bill done, and moved mtns to avoid an out-and-out depressions".  I agree.  I just wish he could, and those who support him could have, done a better job of reminding people of all that has been done.  The change for consumers bludgeoned by the excesses of Wall Street and credit card companies alone is enormous!

So back to my point about the power of a few words. Check out the web site I noted above.  Creative, succinct, informative -- please kick everyone off the President's PR team and hire these three young people!! (if you want to see them interviewed check out the link on Huffingtonpost.com -- Lawrence O'Donnell "The Last Word" on MSNBC.   They came up with the idea and had it done in THREE HOURS!

Lincoln would be proud.

Epilogue:  I am in a "Man in Black" swing these days and among the great songs is one off a very late work: "Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone"  (album: American III: Solitary Man)  "Would you lay with me in a field of stone ...  if my lips grow dry would you wet them dear ... would you go away to another land ... walk a thousand miles through the burning sand ... wipe the blood away from my dying hand ... if I give myself to you ... would you bathe with me in the stream of life ... will you still love me when I'm down and out?"  Here's a You Tube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1onW7xe4SE

Do you have a favorite JC song?  (Not that JC!  Johnny Cash!)  Share with me what and why. 

^Whiuch

Post election dirge

Is this what democracy looks like?  Casting about for some stability in a sea of monied-interests, blind anger, simplistic solutions and amnesia American government lurches precariously right-ward as voters say 'yes' to the Party of 'No!'  Governing is a messy business and people have short attention spans.  Given that we are, by nature, self-centered, tribal and unforgiving it isn't really unexpected that there was a backlash over the decisions, or lack of them, taken by the Democratic leadership over the past 22 months.

I could sing a litany about issues not addressed (immigration reform, energy independence), those poorly attended to (infrastructure jobs, DADT, the foreclosure crisis, failing to imprison Wall Street thieves) and those areas where some chest-thumping was in order (saving the American Car Industry, increasing mpg requirements, taking college loans away from rapacious banks, getting a major health care bill passed that faces down the most inhumane abuses, a stimulus bill -- while inadequate kept a lot of people from losing homes and hope -- getting us mostly out of Iraq, giving us some level of appreciation in a world that had turned against us).

Now the 'post election dirge' has many verses that could be created but this is a song in need of a finish.  How low it will go depends on whether President Obama will get some spine.  Americans want a leader who stands for something. Every time he has been abused by Republicans -- verbally or politically -- he comes back for more, like a wife beaten by an abusive husband.  What will it take to call the cops!?! 

So here is the last verse of the dirge:  Mr. President, don't make me sorry I voted for you.  When you stood tall and talked about your accomplishments on the campaign trail in Sept/Oct your poll numbers jumped.  Do you think was that just a coincidence.  Au contraire mon ami!  You were laying some wood upside the empty heads and rhetoric of Republicans -- who have no plans for anything or anyone -- except YOU -- which is to make you unemployed in 2013.  Wake Up!! 

DON'T YOU DARE allow those immoral, budget-killing, deficit-spiraling, noxious Bush Tax Cut Giveaway to America's wealthiest 2% to be extended!  If you do I will not give one dime to your re-election, make one call on your behalf, I will strip my fridge of my "Obama" magnets and encourage everyone I know to do the same.  Make the Republican leadership show their true stripes -- as if they haven't already!! -- and defend giving the wealthiest a break while tens of millions of Americans can't find work or afford to pay their mortgage or send their kids to school. 

Am creating a new song mix of some favorites -- so that I can have some music to lift my heart.  Any suggestions?  I have put the Mint Juleps "Higher and Higher" on it and "Jump, Jive an' Wail" by Louis Prima ... music can save me!