Friday Music Post - FFHAWDWM (plus links)

Here are some interesting links for you to check out:
Sarah Posner: How the Religious Left, or Whatever It’s Called, Failed at the Budget Big Game (I don't know if I can resist responding to this article. Please read it!)
Catholic Moral Theology: Is there a Christian Response to the Debt Ceiling Debates?
Ezra Klein: On Boehner's Compromise Problem


This is probably my favorite music video of all time.  I hope you all go out and dance tonight.  Have a great weekend everyone.

Neutered Church?

With the decline of church attendance in the mainline Protestant church, it feels, at least to me, that we are moving steadily towards a new church whose core message is about all-embracing, Jesus-love affirming, inclusivity. Without a doubt, this is an important and necessary sea change, and it has been a long time coming.  The parameters put on God's love have too often been, throughout the history of Religion, fueled by the political and the cultural.  The inclusion of non-Jews into the Christian faith, for example, was the first step in a long line of desegregation in its particular tradition.

However, it is a mistake to believe that current notions of what God's love is, is the final word.  History has but one constant mantra: humble yourself or I will destroy you.  The myopia of the now is an incurable disease that stagnates the call to be "reformed and always reforming."

If there is one prevalent fear in my admittedly cloudy crystal ball, it is that in the name of love, the church may blind itself to the things we are called to...not like so much (my reluctance in using strong language is a self fulfilling prophecy).                                                                                                                                          
We must not open our arms only to close our eyes. 


Edit: Point of clarification. The things I am saying we are called to not like so much, is open for your debate. Of course I have some things in mind, namely capitalism, war, and church organ music. 


-Tim

Prison and Pain

This is not a picture from an Ikea catalog.  It is a picture of the newest prison in Norway, where Breivik might spend some time.  Time Magazine has dubbed this place the "World's Most Humane Prison." 

You might have heard about this, as it has been making the rounds lately, and often with much yelling and anger over the fact that a killer of children may have the opportunity to record a world class sounding hip-hop album (seriously) while law abiding citizens toils away free-styling on their laptop microphones.  I am not going to act like it doesn't get me riled up thinking about it as well.

But I will say that it has made me start wondering about the connection between pain and satisfaction.  Or maybe another way of saying it is: "Would the death of Christ have mattered as much if he died during a freak badminton accident in the Roman Empire's hottest new prison?" Our society runs on the belief that you do the crime, you do the time.  And many happily embrace the knowledge that in prison, scary things happen (warning: adult language and themes).  What is the threshold where our satisfaction meets the appropriate amount of pain (and did I word this last sentence oddly?)? 

I Urge You to Watch This - Zizek: First as Tragedy, Then as Farce

You may disagree, but this video is both entertaining and worth some thought at the very least. Can our capitalist system ever fix itself? Are all of us do-gooders making things worse?

Breivik the Christian

Andrew Sullivan: The difference is not in ideology, but in the move to violence. That move is, of course, a central, profound and vital one, and [Bill] O'Reilly's views of the world are in no way responsible for what just happened in Norway. But it is hard to see where O'Reilly would disagree with vast tracts of Breivik's ideology - except the resort to violence. Ideologically, there is scarcely any difference at all.


Damn.

Sullivan's critique (please read the whole thing!) begins from this Bill O'Reilly quote: Breivik is not a Christian. That's impossible. No one believing in Jesus commits mass murder. The man might have called himself a Christian on the net, but he is certainly not of that faith.


It is interesting what we are willing to attribute to an ideology or religion in relation to one's actions in the name of said ideology or religion. Was Stalin actually a communist? The history books certainly label him as such, but would Marx have agreed?  Sullivan brings up Bin Laden, whom certainly is painted at the very least as an Muslim extremist, but do all Muslims claim him as one of them?  


And what do we do when this question is posed for that which we one cannot renounce?  I have had more than a few people look at my ID card and comment that I look like Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech killer (I swear I do not look like him...), but it would make no sense for me to say something like, "Well there is no way that he is a true Asian.  Asians don't do that."  Wouldn't that be convenient Mr. O'Reilly?


-Tim

Norway Terror and Criminal Justice

CNN: Police spokesman Henning Holtaas told CNN that the suspect has been charged with two acts of terror, one for the bombing and one for the mass shooting.

In Norway, the maximum sentence on such a charge is 21 years. However, if the court deems that a person could be a future threat, then they can be sentenced to "preventative detention," Holtaas said. Under that type of sentence, a person would serve the maximum sentence of 21 years and then the court could assess an extension if the person was still deemed a threat, he said.

While reading this article on the tragedy in Norway, these few sentences jumped out at me for complicated reasons.  What does it mean to be a society that treats criminals with justice and not hatred, that offers rehabilitation and not pure condemnation?  At least for myself, when I think about this sort of change in our system, I think about low level offenders, petty crime, minor drug offenses, etc.  I don't think about rehabilitation and forgiveness for the monster who goes out and shoots and kills over sixty children in the deranged name of Jesus Christ.  For that guy, sitting in a cell for the rest of his life does not seem like justice enough.  

And so reading about this maximum 21 year sentence (with the possibility of a court assessed extension), was shocking to me.  21 years?! By the time a new born baby is old enough to go to a bar, this dude could be in there having a drink?  

I wonder if you feel my conflict here too.  Trying to quantify appropriate amounts of justice in relation to forgiveness and compassion seems possible for the pot head, but I don't know about the murderer. 


-Tim