December 2009 Archives

But how so one of the great artists? Every great artist inhabits a genre, and remakes it. Saul Steinberg reinvented the gag cartoon, Jules Feiffer the comic strip, Herblock the political cartoon. Mr. Levine, by insisting on soul-searching gravity, did the same for caricatures even while remaining funny most of the time.

On the other hand, the CHA and the religious orders of nuns that generally operate Catholic hospitals tend to be more pragmatic, weighing particular problems with the greater good that can be achieved and focusing on the political process as a way to resolve any problems either now or through future legislation. It is a difference one often sees between pastors who often deal with people where they are and bishops who often deal in abstractions and whose priority is to defend principles from erosion. Both can be effective approaches in political negotiations.

But there is also little doubt that Keehan and the Catholic hospitals, like many Catholic activists promoting the church's social justice teachings, are far more supportive than the hierarchy of Obama's agenda and see the prospect of health care reform as representing a major, albeit imperfect, advance in the common good.

A kind and encouraging word also means so much to us. For example, this past weekend, local newspapers continued a spate of negative stories about the Catholic Church. They pre­sented as "news" events and allegations from the 1960s and 70s as if they had never been reported on before - when, in fact, they were the subject of more than 200 news articles in the past. In truth, there was nothing new to report. Everywhere I went, parishioners went out of their way to offer me and my brother priests encouragement. "Don't let them get you down," I was told maybe hundreds of times. Two priests celebrated their twenty-fifth anni­versaries to thunderous applause. Other priests who were unfairly targeted were surrounded by the support and love of the people they serve day in and day out.

Yes, we grieve over the events of the past and reach out to those who were harmed. And yes, we've taken massive steps to prevent these things from happening again. Yet many people are recognizing, more clearly than ever, that the Church and her priests are being unfairly and incessantly targeted for what is actually a massive societal problem. So please do not underestimate how much a kind and encour­aging word means to us, your priests.

Today in Ireland, bishops are resigning right and left as the Church experiences (as one wrap-up puts it) a wholesale fall from grace. In America, it's back to Clericalism Forever.

What two consenting adults do, the state has no business... absolutely! It is discriminatory. Me, I don't understand this idea of "African values." Was Muwanga not a homosexual, the Kabaka 1? Eh? Was he not a homosexual? No! Let's stop this nonsense! It is natural! Many children, many young boys in school, as they are growing to adults, have this tendency of attraction.

It is my hope and my prayer that you will join the African church leaders and fellow people of faith, to abstain from supporting any law which can lead to a death penalty; promotes prejudice and hatred; and which can be easily manipulated to oppress people.

DETRACTOR 1 Syr, in the tempyl a mayd ther was Calde Mayd Mary, the trewth to tell. Sche semyd so holy withinne that plas. Men seyd sche was fedde with holy aungell. Sche made a vow with man nevyr to melle, But to leve chast and clene virgine. Howevyr it be, her wombe doth swelle And is as gret as thinne or myne! DETRACTOR 2 Ya, that old shrewe Joseph -- my trowth I plyght -- Was so anameryd upon that mayd That of hyr bewté whan he had syght, He sesyd nat tyll he had her asayd! DETRACTOR 1 A, nay, nay, wel wers she hath hym payd! Sum fresch yonge galaunt she loveth wel more That his leggys to her hath leyd. And that doth greve the old man sore! DETRACTOR 2 Be my trewth, al may wel be, For fresch and fayr she is to syght, And such a mursel -- as semyth me -- Wolde cause a yonge man to have delyght! DETRACTOR 1 Such a yonge damesel of bewté bryght And of schap so comely also Of hir tayle ofte tyme be light And rygh tekyl undyr thee, too! DETRACTOR 2 That olde cokolde was evyl begylyd To that fresche wench whan he was wedde! Now muste he faderyn anothyr mannys chylde And with his swynke, he shal be fedde. DETRACTOR 1 A yonge man may do more chere in bedde To a yonge wench than may an olde. That is the cawse such a lawe is ledde, That many a man is a kokewolde.

is "very clear that the private Member's Bill being discussed in Uganda as drafted is entirely unacceptable from a pastoral, moral and legal point of view." The press office went on to tell LGCM that the proposed Bill was "a cause of deep concern, fear and, to many, outrage."

has been working intensively behind the scenes (over the past weeks) to ensure that there is clarity on how the proposed bill is contrary to Anglican teaching.

Mr Buturo maintained that it was a question of maintaining traditional Christian values as prescribed in the Bible. "You people in the West have no respect whatsoever for our traditional values," he said.

"I do understand in your case homosexuality is normal but here it is totally repugnant, it is repulsive, it's not something you would want to do if you have your normal faculties functioning," he said. "But there you are, in other societies it is different."

Before there was Falwell, Robertson, Bakker, or the Crouches, there was Oral Roberts, the iconoclastic pioneer of televangelism.

My friend said, "What other Pentecostal leader had a vision, and built it?"

And she was right. Whatever can be said about Oral Roberts, he embraced the veni vidi vici of Pentecostalism full stop. I'm only wishing there was a television camera on the other side, to watch him make a grand entrance.

The unmentioned precursor of Oral Roberts was Aimee Semple McPherson. She was the prior Pentecostal superstar who had the vision and built it. She did the healing, built the building, and (before TV existed) created her own radio station that made hers the most famous voice in the West. She may not have had the global reach of  Roberts, but she was, in her day, as big a national celebrity as he ever became, and she had a big hand in taking Pentecostalism out the storefronts and brush arbors and putting it on Main Street. And unlike Roberts, she created her own denomination, which exists to this day. 

So in all the obituary acclamation of Roberts, let's not forget that Sister Aimee was there ahead of him.

I'd say if we set aside Billy Graham and Martin Luther King and Falwell in the sense that their influence was religious but also political and social, outside them Roberts was the most important religious figure in the second half of the 20th Century. Just as a religious figure. And in lots of ways.

The most obvious way was he brought Pentecostalism out of the backwoods and made it respectable. One cannot imagine the modern day Pentecostalism without him. He transformed its image, but also its practice.

It's the respectability thing I wonder about. Roberts' signal contribution to Pentecostal teaching was the Prosperity Gospel--the idea that turning your life over to Jesus and doing good would make you rich in the things of this world. Adherents of this teaching around the world are legion. But, it seems to me, among the cultured despisers of Pentecostalism--religious and secular alike--it's as unrespectable as any Holy Roller ever was.

We generally don't talk much about religion and the Supreme Court. We talk about the need for race and gender diversity on the court in brave, sweeping pronouncements: The court needs more women, we say, or more Asians, or more gay and disabled people. Because all those things will impact the law. But when it comes to talking about religious diversity, it happens in whispers, if at all. Because it might impact the law.

He talked about the need to balance the moral obligation to champion freedom while not getting swept up in self-destructive fervor.

Obama has not always gotten this balance right. He misjudged the emotional moment when Iranians were marching in Tehran. But his doctrine is becoming clear. He aims to be like Truman, not Nixon or Carter or McGovern.

[My faith] gave me clear answers to life's most difficult questions. The summary of our aspirations was in the Hebrew phrase tikkun olam, which is translated "to improve the world" or "to complete God's Creation." It presumes the inherent but unfulfilled goodness of people and requires action for the benefit of the community. These beliefs were a powerful force in my upbringing and seem even more profound and true to me today. The ideal of service [is] fundamental to my religious faith.

RAZ: Jesse Jackson, this week, the president accepted the Nobel Prize, only the third time a U.S. president or former president has received that award. What did you make of that ceremony?

Rev. JACKSON: President Barack Obama has been the redemptive power of hope in - and the hope that he embodies has removed barriers of cynicism and fear and disbelief around the world.

"Overall, the proposed legislation is of shocking severity and I can't see how it could be supported by any Anglican who is committed to what the Communion has said in recent decades," says Dr Williams. "Apart from invoking the death penalty, it makes pastoral care impossible - it seeks to turn pastors into informers." He adds that the Anglican Church in Uganda opposes the death penalty but, tellingly, he notes that its archbishop, Henry Orombi, who boycotted the Lambeth Conference last year, "has not taken a position on this bill".

We're sitting in the bay window of the 11th-century drawing room of the Archbishop's Palace in Canterbury. Watching the winter dusk envelop the cathedral, it feels a long way from the pressures of London. "It is different here," reflects Dr Rowan Williams. "When people live in human-sized communities, they behave rather more, well, humanly."

As the world grows smaller, you might think it would be easier for human beings to recognize how similar we are; to understand that we're all basically seeking the same things; that we all hope for the chance to live out our lives with some measure of happiness and fulfillment for ourselves and our families.

And yet somehow, given the dizzying pace of globalization, the cultural leveling of modernity, it perhaps comes as no surprise that people fear the loss of what they cherish in their particular identities -- their race, their tribe, and perhaps most powerfully their religion. In some places, this fear has led to conflict. At times, it even feels like we're moving backwards. We see it in the Middle East, as the conflict between Arabs and Jews seems to harden. We see it in nations that are torn asunder by tribal lines.

And most dangerously, we see it in the way that religion is used to justify the murder of innocents by those who have distorted and defiled the great religion of Islam, and who attacked my country from Afghanistan. These extremists are not the first to kill in the name of God; the cruelties of the Crusades are amply recorded. But they remind us that no Holy War can ever be a just war. For if you truly believe that you are carrying out divine will, then there is no need for restraint -- no need to spare the pregnant mother, or the medic, or the Red Cross worker, or even a person of one's own faith. Such a warped view of religion is not just incompatible with the concept of peace, but I believe it's incompatible with the very purpose of faith -- for the one rule that lies at the heart of every major religion is that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us.

Why did Bush et al. break the rules? Obama doesn't say. But he is doubtless aware of the evidence that George Bush believed he was carrying out the divine will in conducting his war on terror. Here's Nabil Shaath, then Palestinian foreign minister:

President Bush said to all of us: 'I am driven with a mission from God'. God would tell me, 'George go and fight these terrorists in Afghanistan'. And I did. And then God would tell me 'George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq'. And I did.

Then there's Bush's well-attested effort to enlist the French in the Iraq war by invoking the biblical prophecy of Gog and Magog.

An echo of Bush? No, Obama's speech was a thorough-going rejection of Bush's entire faith-based project.

As stated during the debate of the General Assembly last year, the Holy See continues to oppose all grave violations of human rights against homosexual persons, such as the use of the death penalty, torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. The Holy See also opposes all forms of violence and unjust discrimination against homosexual persons, including discriminatory penal legislation which undermines the inherent dignity of the human person.

Ugandan Parliament, the watch dog of our laws, please go ahead and put the anti- Gay laws in place.

"That's not a negotiation we're prepared to have," said Richard Doerflinger, associate director of the secretariat of pro-life activities for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which pushed for the abortion restrictions in the House bill. "I really don't know how you compromise further."

It was an honor having Governor Palin and her family in our home this evening. I, like many people, have been impressed with her strong commitment to her faith, to family and love of country. I appreciated hearing her speak of her own spiritual journey and her life in Alaska. I shared with her my own memories of preaching in the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage in 1984. We had an opportunity to pray together. Life in the spotlight is not easy and I pray that whatever lies ahead for this family that their faith in God and His Son, Jesus Christ, would remain strong and that God would put a hedge of protection around her and all those she holds dear. Sarah and her family will always be welcome in the Graham home.

The election of Mary Glasspool by the Diocese of Los Angeles as suffragan bishop elect raises very serious questions not just for the Episcopal Church and its place in the Anglican Communion, but for the Communion as a whole.

The process of selection however is only part complete. The election has to be confirmed, or could be rejected, by diocesan bishops and diocesan standing committees. That decision will have very important implications.

The bishops of the Communion have collectively acknowledged that a period of gracious restraint in respect of actions which are contrary to the mind of the Communion is necessary if our bonds of mutual affection are to hold.

But in the matter of Uganda's pending law to criminalize homosexuality up to the death penalty, the ABC saith nary a public word. Ruth Gledhill of Times of London, typically channeling the Canterbury spin, assures that we can take it "for granted" that Williams is dead set against the law, but that he's got to work behind the scenes. An anonymous source in Lambeth Palace offers:

It has been made clear to us, as indeed to others, that attempts to publicly influence either the local church or political opinion in Uganda would be divisive and counter productive. Our contacts, at both national and diocesan level, with the local church will therefore remain intensive but private.

Meanwhile, a significant figure--but not a bishop--in the Ugandan Anglican Church has denounced the anti-homosexuality bill as "state-legislated genocide against a specific community of Ugandans." It's pretty clear that time for the quiet approach is over. In a country where one-third of the population is Anglican, why not something from the ABC like:

The pending anti-homosexuality legislation represents a profound threat to the human rights of a segment of the Ugandan people. The failure of the Ugandan Anglican Church to condemn and oppose it raises very serious questions not just for the Ugandan Anglican Church and its place in the Anglican Communion, but for the Communion as a whole.

In Gledhill's view, for the ABC to take such a stand "would almost certainly be seen as white-led colonialism of the worst possible kind, as a misguided attempt to impose western liberal values upon traditional African culture. It would not help the local Anglican Church, which has yet to come out on either side."

Heaven forfend.

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

In the coming days, you can expect this blog to:

• Provide more information about the day-to-day work of the White House Office and Centers at Federal agencies;
• Highlight the latest work of the President's Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships;
• Point nonprofits to federal resources that can help them implement effective programs; and
• Spotlight innovative local organizations that are strengthening our communities

I'm looking forward to using this blog to communicate important information to local organizations and community leaders.

Since then, there have been a handful of posts having to do with meetings of the OFANP Advisory Council, HHS's flu program and celebration of National Adoption Day, and a USDA hunger program. But not a peep about health reform.

OK, so OFANP is supposed to be about non-controversial Good Things. No mucking around with that pesky faith-based hiring issue, for example. And yes, let Congress take the lead in negotiating the grubby programmatic details. But the White House should be taking charge of making the moral case for covering the uninsured, for doing the right thing for those overwhelmed by health care costs. Can't OFANP show a little faith-based initiative here?

When will those in the spotlight learn that we're counting on them? Can our national heroes publicly sin and remain worthy of adoration?

But if the time should ever come -- and I do not concede any conflict to be even remotely possible -- when my office would require me to either violate my conscience or violate the national interest, then I would resign the office; and I hope any conscientious public servant would do the same.

Susan Gibbs, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese, said that if a compromise is not reached, the Church will continue to provide services but with fewer resources, because it will no longer be able to bid on city contracts.

"We are just asking for a bill that would balance the city's interest in legalizing same-sex marriage and religious groups' interest in following their faith teachings," Gibbs said.

On Sunday, before the shooting, Mr. Huckabee sounded ambivalent on Fox News about running for president, saying he liked his role at the network and wanted to be sure that, unlike in 2008, he would receive support from the Republican establishment.