Amicus Dei

After an off-hand reference I made to Irreligion, by John Allen Paulos, in my post God Bashing, I received a comment on that post by Dr. Paulos himself, which I am posting here: 

I think you might gain a more nuanced perspective on my book,
Irreligion, were you to read the first chapter (only 3 pages), which is
available on my site (URL above) or through the NY Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/books/chapters/1st-chapter-irreligion.html?ref=books&pagewanted=all

Thanks. John Allen Paulos

I really like that Dr. Paulos tackles criticism head-on.   And, I did read the first chapter, which I found very interesting.  We certainly do not agree on the issue of faith, but that’s okay.  Although I only mentioned the book and its NY Times review in passing, I do want to be fair.  I have offered to read the book in its entirety, then post a fair-minded review.  Don’t know if the publisher will provide me a review copy or not, but we’ll see.  But, I do like this guy’s style — both in tackling criticism, and his actual writing style, so I am hoping the publisher will cooperate.  I’ll keep you posted.  — Amicus Dei

I just finished reading The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church by Vladimir Lossky.  This is not a new book because Lossky died in 1958, but it is an excellent volume on Orthodox theology and tradition.  I waited for several weeks for the book from Amazon, so undoubtedly it is hard to come by, but the wait was worth it.  Here are some of the reasons I like the book:

1. Good introduction to Orthodox theology.  Although familiarity with theological concepts helps, the book is well-written and gives a clear, concise overview of Eastern thought.   
2. Offers clear, yet charitable distinctions between the theology of the West (RCC) and East.  Lossky does not shrink from pointing out the differences in the two traditions, but he does so charitably.  Here’s an interesting one:  Lossky states that there are no recorded instances of Eastern saints receiving the stigmata, which is found often in the saints of the Roman Catholic Church.  However, there are many instances of Orthodox saints becoming “transfigured” — glowing with light in their physical bodies.  p243
3. Defines mystical as belonging both to theology and experience.  “As regards the Eastern Church, we have already remarked that she makes no sharp distinction between theology and mysticism, between the realm of the common faith and that of personal experience.” p14
4. Presents a high view of Trinitarian theology.  Central to Orthodoxy is the Trinity — God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.  Lossky discusses at length and in almost every chapter the Orthodox view of beginning with the concrete Persons of the Godhead, and moving toward the One Nature of the Trinity.  This is the reverse of the Western Church, which begins with the concept of One Nature and then moves to define the Three Persons.  The section on Divine Energies is particularly fresh and helpful. 

There is so much more that I like about this book, and Orthodox theology in general.  One particularly amazing story is found in the chapter on The Divine Light.  But, I’ll write about that in another post because it deserves the spotlight all to itself. 

If you’re interested in reading good theology that will make you think, this is a good book.  I found little to disagree with, and much to be amazed at from our often mysterious Eastern cousins.  One wonders how much richer the Christian faith would be if the schism had not occurred.   Or maybe Christianity is richer because the East and West did go their separate ways.  Thankfully, the Eastern Church still has much to teach, and this book is a great place to begin to learn.  – Amicus Dei

 In the celtic Christian abbey, the monks and nuns practiced a “rule of life.”   The most well-known example of this is The Rule of St. Benedict, written by the father of the Benedictine order.  But other traditions also have a rule of life that shapes community.   A simple  example I like is this one:

1. Protect all life. “I am committed to cultivating compassion and learning ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants, and minerals.  I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to condone any act of killing in the world, in my thinking, and in my way of life.”
2. Use material possessions for good.  “I will practice generosity…I am determined not to steal….I will respect the property of others…I will prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of other species on Earth.”
3. Practice love and responsibility in the area of sexual relationships.  “I am committed to…protect the safety and intergrity of individuals, couples, families, and society…determined to respect my commitments and the commitments of others…do everything in my power to protect children and families from being broken by sexual misconduct.”
4. Speak lovingly and listen deeply. “Knowing that words can create happiness or suffering, I am determined to speak truthfully, with words that inspire self-confidence, joy and hope…I will refrain from uttering words that can cause division or discord…I am determined to make all efforts to reconcile and resolve all conflicts, however small.”
5. Cultivate good health practices. “I will ingest only items that preserve peace, well-being, and joy in my body…I am determined not to use alcohol or any intoxicant or to ingest foods or other items that contain toxins, such as certain programs, magazines, books, films and conversations.  I will work to transform violence, fear, anger, and confusion in myself  and in society by practicing a diet for myself and society…”

Quotes excerpted from Thich Nhat Hanh:  Essential Writings, pages 159-160, by Orbis Books.

These rules govern the life of the community, or sangha, in Mahayana Buddhism.  If you would like to read more about this rule of life, read Thich Nhat Hanh’s books, particularly Being Peace.  The church-as-abbey would also practice a rule of life around which its members shape their lives.   Some neomonastic communities are doing this now, but traditional churches can also find a rule of life suitable for their shared commitments together.   Of course, as in the Celtic abbeys, not everyone who comes into the abbey will commit to that rule or practice it, but a core group of neomonastics could.  — Amicus Dei

As 2007 comes to a close, here are The Top 10 Posts on Amicus Dei for 2007 —

1. Why I Preach From The Lectionary — This post recently was picked up by the Religious Herald and quoted by Baptists Today.  More of us Baptists are realizing the wisdom of following the Christian Year, and preaching from the revised common lectionary. 
2. A Baptist Using Prayer Beads — Another odd thing for a Baptist preacher to do, use prayer beads.  But there they are.  Sadly, the beads in the photo broke this year and some went missing.  My other set  is hanging here at my desk now. 
3. The Church as Abbey — This is the first post I did on the-church-as-abbey concept.  Several more followed with lots of comments and interest over the year. 
4. Prayer for the Wandering Heart — This is one of my favorites because I was living the poem’s story. 
5. Doing Justice:  Don Imus Has To Go — Remember the Imus affair?  Off the airwaves in disgrace.  Less than a year later, he’s back.  With the same guests.  But hopefully not the same tired routine.
6. Where Is God?  — Portion of a sermon I preached after the killings at Virginia Tech.  ChristianityToday.com picked it up on their site.
7. Groundbreaking for The Community Center — Two years of work came together as 40-kids donned "hardhats" and kid-size shovels to break ground for our new community center here in Chatham.  We’ll move in April, 2008.  I’ll keep you posted.
8. Why Are We Putting Children in Prison? — I was stunned by this story of the incarceration of young children and their mothers who came to the US seeking asylum.  Thankfully the ACLU won a lawsuit, and now these same children who are still in prison can have teddy bears and crayons.  What happened to give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free? 
9. Mother Teresa and the dark night of the soul — my take on the controversy surrounding the publication of Mother Teresa’s memoirs, and her confession that Christ seemed far from her.
10. Nothing Personal — a true story of friends of ours and their encounter with anti-Semitism now and as history. 

So there they are — the top 10 from 2007.  I hope this year has been good for you.  See you next year!   — Amicus Dei 

Watch this video of Daniel Goleman’s TED talk about why we are sometimes compassionate and sometimes not.  This is a great follow-up to my post "I Can’t Care About Everything."  Goleman is the author of Emotional Intelligence, and this is worth your time.  Good stories illustrate his point that we are compassionate when we notice those in need.  — Amicus Dei

Thanks to Steve Collins at small ritual for this great set of slides on flickr titled urban church set.  I had posted some of Steve’s work earlier here — his design for a meeting space for new expressions of church.  That was on the micro level, urban church set is the macro level. 

Steve sees the whole community as a potential set — venue, stage, space — for the church.  This is a wonderfully reimagined version of the Celtic church-as-abbey as a multi-structure village.  Only in Steve’s version, which I really like, he takes public and private spaces and repurposes them for "church" — which gets loosely, but relevantly defined depending on the experience going on in a space.  You have to see the slide show to get the idea, but this is the first really good undestanding I’ve seen of this concept.  Thanks, Steve! 

Oh, check out Steve’s other stuff, too.  Creative guy.  – Amicus Dei

On October 25, we turned off our TV, unplugged the big, black box, and stashed it upstairs behind a sofa.  We kept our cable service and a small 13-incher in the kitchen to ease the pain of media withdrawal.   Almost a month later, we are disconnecting from master control at the cable company and will go completely TV-less today.  Here’s what we have discovered:

1. Real news is scarce.  Not that much really happens in the world.  We have kept up nicely with world events, and even local news.  Most "news" consists of newspeople talking about the news that might happen, could happen, has happened, or will happen.  We have not missed the talking heads. 
2. We have accomplished more.  More writing, more reading, more puttering around the house, more visits to people in the community, more praying, more talking to each other about our life and not about which house the people on HGTV are going to buy. 
3. I am calmer.  Debbie is always calm, but I fidget, click channels incessantly, and get angry at the sorry state the world is in.   I noticed that I am less all of those things.
4. We’re saving energy and money.  TV sets are one of those always-on appliances.  Unplugging ours will save us some money in electrical use, reduce our carbon footprint, and make us feel better.  Plus, we won’t be paying the cable company $57 a month — which is $684 per year.  Real money.
5. We are more involved in our own lives.  I no longer feel like a spectator of my own life.  No more vegging-out in front of the TV.  If I veg now, I have to read, think, sit, or work.  This lifestyle is closer to the work-pray rhythm of monastic life, and I like that.

This may not be for everyone, but we’re doing it for now.  Plus, this is also the future.  NBC just bought Quarterlife, a MySpace program that NBC will air.   Now all content is on the ‘net, on our terms, in the time of our choosing, and totally in our control.  Pretty cool.  – Amicus Dei

Forget everything you know about church.  Specifically that you plant a church, gather a crowd, buy property, build buildings, and plan to stay in business until Jesus comes — or in the case of those whose theology does not include the rapture — longer. 

Enter some reallly innovative retailers who forgot everything they knew about the concept of store.  Everything, as in store always means a permanent building, and a plan to stay in business until Jesus comes so they can sell the T-shirts. 

According to PSFK, trend consultants, stores are now being dropped into New York City in shipping containers.  These pop-up stores are the brainchild of Uniqlo, a very hip retailer, who will drop these shipping container stores into the very trendy NYC… 

"…according to Women’s Wear Daily. As a precursor to the October opening of Uniqlo’s 36,000-sq.-ft. flagship in SoHo, the container stores will operate every weekend until the flagship opens."

Kind of like those banks that have the cheesy trailer location until the real bank is built.  But only cooler.  But wait, there’s more!  illy, the Italian coffee people, created a pop-up store in a park.  The sides drop down to reveal a very nice little coffee bistro kind of thing.  I wish we had one here in Chatham. 

And finally, Comme de Garcons opens guerilla stores…

"Each shop stays open for one year only, and advertising is limited to posters and word-of-mouth. The locations for these CDG hit-and-runs are always in gentrified neighborhoods – the new Williamsburgs or Hoxtons of the world’s emerging cities."

All of this is very much like my post on Opawa Baptist Church in New Zealand where Steve Taylor, author of The Out of Bounds Church, is the pastor.  Opawa and their arts partners dropped shipping containers of Christmas art around their community for a new expression of the Christmas story.  Steve Taylor’s article, When Art Comes To Town:  Reflection on Art As Public Mission is a great resource for reimaging the impact a church can have.    Church doesn’t have to be permanent, or even built.  Any thoughts on other ways to do guerilla church?  – Amicus Dei

You’ve heard of "blood diamonds" now add bananas to the list. USA Today reports that Chiquita Banana entered a guilty plea in Federal Court to paying right-wing paramilitary organizations in Columbia, organizations that our government has labeled as terrorists.  Chiquita’s fine:  $25-million dollars.  Chiquita’s profit from Columbia bananas:  $49-million.  You do the math.  Cheaper to pay the right-wing paramilitaries and the fine.  How’s $24-million for "blood bananas?" 

See Chiquita’s press release regarding their plea and sentencing here. 

USA Today quotes a former paramilitary leader as saying that every US multi-national banana company — Chiquita, Dole, and Del Monte — paid bribes to right-wing terrorist death squads for protection of the banana companies interests: 

Former AUC leader Salvatore Mancuso in May told the newspaper El Tiempo in Bogota that all banana producers had paid for protection, including Dole and Del Monte. Mancuso, who was jailed after turning himself in as part of an ongoing government-backed demobilization, said his group received 1 cent for every dollar of bananas exported. "All of the banana companies paid us. Every one of them," Mancuso told the newspaper.  — USA Today

God’s Politics summarizes the implications of the actions by Chiquita, as follows: 

• $1.7 million – amount Chiquita paid the Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, AUC), a right-wing paramilitary organziation responsible for the majority of human rights abuses in Colombia’s armed conflict.
• $25 million – amount Chiquita was fined after pleading guilty of paying money to a terrorist organization.
• $49.4 million - profits reaped by Chiquita from its Colombian operations between Sept. 10, 2001, when the AUC was designated a terrorist group, and January 2004, when its payments stopped. That’s a number to keep in mind when Chiquita protests that it was merely trying to protect its workers.
• 173 – Colombians allegedly murdered and in some cases tortured by right-wing militias that received payments from Chiquita, whose families are now suing the company.
• 4,000 - number of people killed in the Uraba banana-growing region during the period when Chiquita admits to paying the AUC.
• 1989 until 1997 – years during which Chiquita paid left-wing guerillas before the region in which they operated was taken over by the AUC.

This is the suicide machine that Brian McLaren writes about in his new book, Everything Must Change.  This is what Paul said that the church as a contrast society struggles against

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.   – Ephesians 6:12

"But, it’s just bananas," they say.  Tell that to the 173 families of those tortured and murdered by the right-wing militias financed by Chiquita.   Blood and bananas — not an appetizing combination.  We’re looking for other brands at our house.  – Amicus Dei