Is God ‘A Recovering Practitioner of Violence’?

"Recovering? Who said I was recovering?"

I was just watching some sessions from 2004’s Emerging Theological Conversation that I attended at All Souls PCA Church in Decatur with Jasmin and Seth in the fall of 2004 – some five years ago. Walter Brueggemann was the presenting scholar, and Brian McLaren, Tim Keel, Troy Bronsink and others were hosting the dialogues with him (Yes, ladies, there were lots of dudes on stage back in 2004…we got better). It was the first time I’d met Troy; the second time I’d met Chris Seay I believe, and the third time I’d met Brian – I got up the courage to approach Brian afterward and ask him if he needed any editorial feedback, and to my delight & surprise I got to informally work on The Last Word and the Word After That. Good times.

Grrr. Why won't Google Videos format in WordPress?

Soo, yeah. It was at this conference that Brueggemann presented his 19 Theses:

1.     Everybody lives by a script. The script may be implicit or explicit. It may be recognized or unrecognized, but everybody has a script.

2.     We get scripted. All of us get scripted through the process of nurture and formation and socialization, and it happens to us without our knowing it.

3.      The dominant scripting in our society is a script of technological, therapeutic, consumer militarism that socializes us all, liberal and conservative.

4.     That script (technological, therapeutic, consumer militarism) enacted through advertising and propaganda and ideology, especially on the liturgies of television, promises to make us safe and to make us happy.

5.     That script has failed. That script of military consumerism cannot make us safe and it cannot make us happy. We may be the unhappiest society in the world.

6.     Health for our society depends upon disengagement from and relinquishment of that script of military consumerism. This is a disengagement and relinquishment that we mostly resist and about which we are profoundly ambiguous.

7.     It is the task of ministry to de-script that script among us. That is, too enable persons to relinquish a world that no longer exists and indeed never did exist.

8.     The task of descripting, relinquishment and disengagement is accomplished by a steady, patient, intentional articulation of an alternative script that we say can make us happy and make us safe.

9.     The alternative script is rooted in the Bible and is enacted through the tradition of the Church. It is an offer of a counter-narrative, counter to the script of technological, therapeutic, consumer militarism.

10.  That alternative script has as its most distinctive feature, its key character – the God of the Bible whom we name as Father, Son, and Spirit.

11.  That script is not monolithic, one dimensional or seamless. It is ragged and disjunctive and incoherent. Partly it is ragged and disjunctive and incoherent because it has been crafted over time by many committees. But it is also ragged and disjunctive and incoherent because the key character is illusive and irascible in freedom and in sovereignty and in hiddenness, and, I’m embarrassed to say, in violence – [a] huge problem for us.

12.  The ragged, disjunctive, and incoherent quality of the counter-script to which we testify cannot be smoothed or made seamless. [I think the writer of Psalm 119 would probably like too try, to make it seamless]. Because when we do that the script gets flattened and domesticated. [This is my polemic against systematic theology]. The script gets flattened and domesticated and it becomes a weak echo of the dominant script of technological, consumer militarism. Whereas the dominant script of technological, consumer militarism is all about certitude, privilege, and entitlement this counter-script is not about certitude, privilege, and entitlement. Thus care must betaken to let this script be what it is, which entails letting God be God’s irascible self.

13.  The ragged, disjunctive character of the counter-script to which we testify invites its adherents to quarrel among themselves – liberals and conservatives – in ways that detract from the main claims of the script and so too debilitate the focus of the script.

14.  The entry point into the counter-script is baptism. Whereby we say in the old liturgies, “do you renounce the dominant script?”

15.  The nurture, formation, and socialization into the counter-script with this illusive, irascible character is the work of ministry. We do that work of nurture, formation, and socialization by the practices of preaching, liturgy, education, social action, spirituality, and neighboring of all kinds.

16.  Most of us are ambiguous about the script; those with whom we minister and I dare say, those of us who minister. Most of us are not at the deepest places wanting to choose between the dominant script and the counter-script. Most of us in the deep places are vacillating and mumbling in ambivalence.

17.  This ambivalence between scripts is precisely the primary venue for the Spirit. So that ministry is to name and enhance the ambivalence that liberals and conservatives have in common that puts people in crisis and consequently that invokes resistance and hostility.

18.  Ministry is to manage that ambivalence that is equally present among liberals and conservatives in generative faithful ways in order to permit relinquishment of [the] old script and embrace of the new script.

19.  The work of ministry is crucial and pivotal and indispensable in our society precisely because there is no one [see if that’s an overstatement]; there is no one except the church and the synagogue to name and evoke the ambivalence and too manage a way through it. I think often; I see the mundane day-to-day stuff ministers have to do and I think, my God, what would happen if you took all the ministers out. The role of ministry then is as urgent as it is wondrous and difficult.

It’s interesting that what disturbs us sometimes the first time we hear it ends up comforting us the next time we hear it. More explosively than his challenging theses, it was at this conference that Brueggemann posits that  “God is a recovering practitioner of violence.” As Geoff Holsclaw summarizes – “By this he means that God used to think violence was a good idea, but then gave up on it. However, like all addicts, He has relapses. Of which the cross is either the final deliverance, or another relapse.” Of course this is potentially disconcerting, as we don’t like to imagine the repentance of God – and yet, this is precisely what is suggested in Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan (thanks, Jack Miles!). Incarnation inaugurates a genuine new-ness in God’s new covenant with humanity & cosmos. As Geoff continues, “Concerning faith and knowledge, Brueggemann says: “We all have a craving for certitude, but the gospel is all about fidelity.” By this he means that certitude is an epistemological category while fidelity is a relational one. And the way of the Cross is to depart from our certitude, to die to our answers/desires/scripts.”

Part of the ‘inner reflex’ is Centering Prayer is letting go. For 20 minutes twice a day, it’s a continuous letting go of thoughts and emotions that well up inside – kind of like a fisherman catching fish but not to eat – just for fun. He’s sitting in a boat (the mind) and his pole rests in the water (the field of consciousness). Little fish (thoughts, ideas, emotions) come up and nibble on the line (ordinary awareness) – the fisherman doesn’t shoot the fish with a revolver or cut the line. Instead, he pulls the little fish up, but doesn’t keep them in the boat – it’s catch & release.

Catch and release, catch and release, gently, graciously – because you recognize that even the lake is situated in a much larger ecosystem (God). You can let go because the earth is abundant; you will be fed. Centering Prayer is a journey of trust in God, even on the unconscious level, where all kind of mis-trustful thoughts bubble up to the surface. The life centered in surrender to & trust in God is a life of profound peace and productivity – and our Scriptures attest, in a myriad of ways, that such trust (faith) ‘pleases God.’ But when we’re faced with the disturbing truths that Brueggemann elucidates – God’s irascibility for instance – what do we do?

There are two ways to do handle this. One is the way of definitive, forceful – almost violent – denial that there is (or has ever been) anything troubling in God’s character or actions. It’s the route of trusting God via suppression.

But there is another route – more painful, more adult, more complex – but I think it can still end in deeply-rooted, childlike trust. It’s a path that I’ve learned from many guides over the years, including Bruggie Baby (sorry for the familiarity, but it’s really hard typing his name over and over again), Meister Eckhart, the Jewish scholar Richard Elliot Friedman in The Hidden Face of God, Jack Miles in his Christ: A Crisis in the Life of God, ‘deeper life’ missionary and teacher Norman Grubb, and the process theologians that Tripp Fuller is getting me to read (like his professor Philip Clayton of Transforming Theology) or listen to & he and Chad Crawford’s uber-awesome podcast Homebrewed Christianity – all refined in the daily, simple crucible (quite actually) of centering prayer as taught by Contemplative Outreach and particularly Cynthia Bourgeault. (Did you read that paragraph, Ken Silva? It was practically tailor-written for you, LOL. If you don’t write about me, Discernmentalist Mafia will!)

And this is the path: As Grubb proposes a radically panentheistic reading of Holy Writ, there is only One Person in the Universe. (Y’know, like “I Am the Lord your God, there is no Other?”) Creation unfolds inside of God. And within this unfolding, it moves from gross to subtle to causal (sorry, had to throw a little Integral theory in here) – meaning that God once walked around and acted, anthropomorphically, as a human being. Gradually across the narrative shape of the Hebrew Bible, God began to withdraw God’s conscious presence in this way – “I will hide My face from them, and see what their fate may be.” God goes from walking around earth to appearing via angelic intermediaries; to public miracles, to dreams and visions and prophets, to private subjective experiences to interpretations written out in a Book. In Ruth and Esther, God is scarcely mentioned at all. (God then repeats this process again in Jesus – but the same progression from overt to subtle takes place on the pages of the New Testament and in Church history) We could lament this move as somehow connected to God punishing us; withheld manifest presence as a result of our sin or some such thing. On the other hand, what if we as a human race are growing up, maturing, and therefore God appears to us in more mature ways? In this way, God is very actively involved in our history as a parent, but then gives us space to get older – not becoming more distant, but in fact closer than our very breath. God’s presence moves from the obvious to the sublime. (Which would explain, to me, why Monotheistic Western religion – in the form of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – starts out very concrete-operational in its orientation and almost inevitably moves to the mystical. The majority adherents might not make that leap, but it undeniably does seem like a leap forward.)

Now, here’s the same thought from another trajectory: God influences us, that we’ve always known; but what if we – the sum total of we, human and non-human life alike – influence God? If we’re bound up in him, marked off in God before our conception, our learning and growing is God’s learning and growing – what if? I don’t mean to rehash the entire Open Theism vs. Calvinism debate of the 1990s here, but I think that it’s possible to simultaneously hold that God is good, wise, and powerful while also affirming the ability of God to learn and (even) change God’s mind – we see so many examples of this in the narrative of Scripture, that it seems fool-hardy to deny this in order to preserve our cherished Greco-Roman structured systematic theologies.

So, today, in a secular age, we affirm that God is true and real, but we wrestle with what this means. We stake our lives on the goodness of God, but we recognize that ‘goodness’ might be different today, as it truly seems to be if you’re looking at Covenantal unfolding in Scripture. This just seems developmentally true: If you’re someone who, like me, is committed to peace and justice work today but grew up watching the 700 Club approvingly as a kid, you’ve experienced the dissonance that God, just possibly, has experienced: What made perfect sense in the 1980s seems cruel and inhuman today. And this is precisely what Abraham and Moses are recorded as having argued to YHWH some 4,000+ years ago: “Don’t wipe out this-or-that people, LORD; it’s bad PR. It does not magnify the glory of Your Name; it does not add to the praise of Your reputation.” Sometimes, YHWH did what he was going to do anyway; sometimes, he listened and changed course.

What does this have to do with our lives today? Is this a wildly unstable theology of God? Is such a changeable God not worthy of worship? I don’t know about that. I think that, if the evangelical mantra is true, and we can indeed have ‘a personal relationship with G-D,’ then this relationship is a genuine one with real give-and-take, real learning on both sides. I think that I can be an orthodox Trinitarian Christian with a high Christology, and still hold that the Universe is one important aspect of the unfolding of God – and that we are the co-unfolding of God within God. And that we recognize this unfolding, and respond to it, and even initiate its furtherance of it, on a deep, nourishing level when we learn to trust the God Who Is – as opposed to the fantasy God whom we fondly wish Would Be. This path is more difficult – but this is real trust.

Watch or listen to the complete 2004 Emergent Theological Conversation with Walter B. here.

Walter Brueggemann

My Technological Job Moment

This has just not been my week, technologically speaking. I would never compare my life to Job in the ‘real world;’ this past week, a five-year-old girl was killed in Raleigh, after being prostituted by her mother for an undetermined time – unbeknownst to her father. The economy is allegedly recovering while an analogous recovery in employment is apparently not necesarry. Chronic hunger – euphemistically deemed ‘food insecurity’ by those fluent in policyspeak, is on the rise. And that’s just in America – to say nothing of Palestine, or Darfur.

So no, if I were attempting to compare myself to Job in The World Outside, I’d be tragically unaware. But in cyberspace, at the intersection of Big Corporate Business and Big Tech, I feel like I’ve had a steady stream of little nanobot robot servants coming to me, rattling off some techno-calamity, breathlessly finishing “…and I alone have lived to tell you!” Allow me my lament:

  • First, my Facebook account gets deactivated. I’ve already spilled ink on that. No word from them yet. (Though thanks all of you who have joined the Facebook group registering your complaint) Does anyone know a higher-up at FB that you can get me in touch with? Follow me on Twitter @zoecarnate for updates on this.
  • Second, my Gmail starts randomly rejecting emails I send, displaying this warning message, essentially accusing me of “sending suspicious-looking or spammy text…to large numbers of recipients.” The odd thing is, in every instance my email has bounced, I’ve emailed 1-2 people in response to a query they’ve made to me. The bounces haven’t happened alot yet, but it feels ominous, like a portent of what to come. (Think ‘No Country for Old Men.’)
  • Next, my soon-to-be-former bank Wachovia has been making life for the Morrell Clan miserable, via their predatory automated protection racket, aka ‘Overdraft Protection.’ But I’ve spilled pixels on this before, too. I’ve always thought that there’s a special place in hell for bankers, but when it comes to the person(s) who invented Overdraft Protection, it seems that Lucifer and his misshapen demonic minions will be playing jump rope with their intestines. Just sayin’.
  • Finally, I was informed by an astute web-surfer yesterday that zoecarnate.com, my alt.xian web directory, was down. Turns out my domain name tried to auto-renew, but I’d switched debit cards a few months back so it didn’t go through. And now, due to the Wachovia snafu detailed above, a want of $25 has zoecarnate.com in limbo. (Wanna donate toward this & other needed zoecarnate upgrades? PayPal me at paperprelude [at] gmail [dot] com. We’re actually in the midst of some lovely plans for a zoecarnate.com redesign with a very talented web architect. We’re looking for possible grant and/or investment partners, or else a collective of smaller-change donors…hit me up for more info. And click here for an amusing, out-of-date, zoecarnate PSA)

So what lessons has this massive #TECHNOFAIL taught me? I have no clue to be honest. What lessons did Job learn? That’s the debate, isn’t it? I tend to think that Job, like Ecclesiastes, accentuates the meaninglessness of suffering. But many exegetes and meaning-makers tend to sound more like Job’s friends in the story, pinning ‘the reason’ for Job’s suffering on This, That, or the Other.

Rather than looking back and trying to discern a techno-cosmic pattern, I’d rather look forward: How, now, shall I live? Like Job, I think take care of, and nurture, my limping technological superstructure. But I’m also going to go outside more.

Recommended ROM Drinking – ChlorOxygen

I just finished my morning ROM – whew! It always leaves me gasping & panting. And no wonder – after four minutes on the ROM, your body is gasping for oxygen. This helps burn fat. As ROm distributor Alf Temme puts it:

Most everyone believes (incorrectly so) in the myth that a cardio workout requires at least 20 to 45 minutes per day. The truth is that if you want to improve strength, flexibility and cardio vascular endurance, that you must do slight damage to each of these systems by putting a slight overload on them. An overload on the muscles will create micro tears in the muscles that will in the repair process cause the muscles to become stronger. An overload on the tendons will create small damage by creating a very mild tendonitis and that will create more flexibility during the healing process of the tendonitis. An overload on the cardiovascular system is measured by way of total oxygen consumption during an exercise period. It can be low oxygen consumption during a long period of time or a very high oxygen consumption during a short period of time to reach the overload. An added advantage of a high oxygen consumption during a short time is that the length of time required for a cardiovascular workout becomes exponentially shorter with a linear increase of oxygen consumption. Oxygen consumption is expressed in milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute (mlO2/kg/min). With conventional forms of exercise it is nearly impossible for the untrained general public to reach the high levels of oxygen consumption required for a short and effective cardio workout. With the ROM machine untrained individuals will easily reach the very high levels of oxygen consumption that require only minutes for an effective aerobic workout that yields the same or better cardiovascular benefits than the conventional 20 to 45 minute aerobic workouts practiced by the general public.

This is certainly the way my body feels it. Particularly after the lower-body ROM workout. On those days if I’m especially gasping, I’ll drink a glass of water infused with ChlorOxygen – a chlorophyll concentrate that brings oxygen to the blood. I hope this isn’t cheating, because it feels great – it’s like the liquid is breathing within me. I also drink copious amounts of ChlorOxygen-infused water whenever I’m in the mountains of Colorado.

Facebook Has Disabled My Account – How You Can Help Me Get It Back

Facebook Is Doing It Wrong

Update November 19: Facebook has still not reinstated my account, and they’ve had zero contact with me. I have a couple of friends looking into contacting some of the higher-ups. In the meantime, some very kind friends started a Facebook – Reactivate Mike Morrell’s Profile! group (on Facebook, of course!). I’m never sure how effective these kinds of groups are, but it’s a great gesture. By all means, join it if you’re so inclined. That’s probably how I’ll keep everyone updated. You can also keep up with me on Twitter @zoecarnate.

Social networks: We depend on them for so much these days. When they work, we barely notice we’re using them, but when they fail us, they fail spectacularly. One of the weaknesses of the most popular social networks has been their high levels of automation, and dearth of ‘human touch.’ An impersonal robot running automatic protocols can make life quite difficult; an overworked human overseeing hundreds of appeals can do the same. I’ve learned both over the weekend as my Facebook account has been disabled, seemingly never to return.

Here’s the background: For over a year now, I’ve hovered at around 5,000 Facebook friends – 5,000 is Facebook’s cap. I’ve blogged about this difficulty before. Nearly a year ago, a strange thing happened: I was unable to request new friends (or add new Fan pages even), even though I hadn’t reached the 5,000-friend cap. However, I noticed that when someone added me, I could still accept their friend request. Whenever I had a new friend or family member join Facebook this past year, I had to write a rather awkward message to them telling them I’d really love to connect, and if they’d add me I could accept them. I even had to write my own grandmother this way!

So Saturday, I’d been tired of staring at about eight Suggested Friends suggestions – all for people I know in real-life. So one right after another, I sent them FB messages with this variation:

Hi Jim!

Our mutual friend XXXX recommended that we connect on Facebook, and I couldn’t agree more…unfortunately, Facebook has blocked me from adding any more friends – because I’m so close to their 5,000-friend cap, I suppose. But! I can accept friend requests that come my way, so if you’re so inclined add me & I’ll approve.

Talk to you soon,

Mike
@zoecarnate
zoecarnate.wordpress.com

I sent seven of these, and on the eighth I got a warning message from Facebook telling me to slow down – that I might be sending some kind of spammy repeat message. Okay, I thought. Well this is the last one anyway. So I hit ’send’ on the eighth, and got a Captcha code. I filled it out to verify that yes, I was indeed a human, and sent it, thinking nothing more of it. ‘Till ten minutes later when I tried to find a friend’s wedding photos online, and Facebook prompted me to login. That’s strange, I thought. I was already logged in. Then I received the words:

Facebook Login  Account Disabled Your account has been disabled. If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit our FAQ page here.

You’re dang straight I had concerns! (Ego, Dom Anthony DeMello would tell me, ego. Why do you care so much about this Facebook account anyway? “You’ve obviously never had a Facebook account!” I tell Father Anthony, ideationally.) So I wrote the nice people at Facebook, figuring I’d set the record straight. I wasn’t one of their horrible spammers, or sales pimps. I wasn’t misusing anything – just trying to get in touch with people whom I should’ve been able to Friend request to begin with, were their system not already broken. So here’s what I said:

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Michael Morrell <z——-@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Nov 14, 2009 at 8:34 AM
Subject: My Account Was Disabled By Mistake – facebook.com/zoecarnate
To: disabled@facebook.com

Hi there,

I’m writing you pursuant to http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=45 because my account was disabled by mistake. I did not violate Facebook’s terms of use, nor was I using FB to promote a business or service.

Here’s exactly what happened: I am close to your 5,000 friends cap. I have 4,494 friends, to be exact. I had about eight friends who were suggested to me to connect with on Facebook, but for some reason your system hasn’t allowed me to add any new friends (or even become a Fan of any new pages) for nearly a year. So I messaged this eight people, suggesting that if they wanted to connect with me on FB, that they’d have to add me – for some reason, I can approve requests, even though I can’t initiate them.

I think this action tripped up your system because a.) I sent the eight or so messages one right after the other, and b.) I have links in my signature line? That’s my best guess. Anyway, I have been on here since 2007, am not a spammer, and would appreciate being reinstated. : )

Thanks,

Mike

Pretty straightforward, eh? You’d think if such a message actually got read by a real-live human being, it’d get handled nicely, right? Alas, things are rarely so simple are they? Here’s the response I received earlier this evening:

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: The Facebook Team <info+dm2mi0p@facebook.com>
Date: Sun, Nov 15, 2009 at 6:06 PM
Subject: Re: My Account Was Disabled By Mistake – facebook.com/zoecarnate
To: z——@gmail.com

Hi Mike,

Facebook aspires to be an environment where people can interact safely with their friends and people they know. Accordingly, we expect accounts to reflect mainly your “real-world contacts.” We do not endorse contacting strangers through unsolicited friend requests as they may be considered annoying or abusive.

To prevent this type of behavior, Facebook has limits in place that restrict the rate at which you can use certain features on the site. Your account was disabled because Facebook determined that you were going too fast when sending friend requests, despite being warned to slow down, or because your friend requests were being rejected at a high rate.

After further review of your account, we have determined that you violated our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities by misusing our site features to harass other users. We will not be able to reactivate your account for any reason. This decision is final.

Thanks for your understanding,

Marissa
User Operations
Facebook

Nope…sorry. No understanding granted. I wrote Marissa back:

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Michael Morrell <z—–@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Nov 15, 2009 at 6:13 PM
Subject: Re: My Account Was Disabled By Mistake – facebook.com/zoecarnate
To: The Facebook Team <info+dm2mi0p@facebook.com>, disabled@facebook.com

I’m sorry, Marissa – I must not have made myself clear. I know all of the people who were recommended by our mutual friends – I know them in real life. David T. is a family friend from church. James Rutz is a fellow author friend. And so on. All of these people are those whom I know. The disabling was triggered by my sending the emails to these folks too quickly.

I have been a FB member in good standing since 2007; I’ve already had dozens of people ask what happened to me. This is how I keep up with many friends, relatives, and colleagues; please reconsider.

Thank you,

Mike

Marissa replied, within the hour, with a combination of the verbatim text from before and a repeated denial of appeal. Now I feel like I am talking to a robot:

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: The Facebook Team <info+dm2mi0p@facebook.com>
Date: Sun, Nov 15, 2009 at 7:24 PM
Subject: Re: My Account Was Disabled By Mistake – facebook.com/zoecarnate
To: z——@gmail.com

Hi Mike,

Your account was disabled because you exceeded Facebook’s limits on multiple occasions, despite having been warned to slow down. Upon further review of your site activity, we have determined that you were in violation of our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.

One of Facebook’s main priorities is the comfort and safety of our users. Accordingly, Facebook does not endorse unsolicited contact with strangers as it may be considered annoying or abusive. It is especially prohibited when large groups of users who share similar physical characteristics are targeted for this type of behavior.

Unfortunately, your account has been permanently disabled. We will not be able to reactivate it for any reason, nor will we provide further explanation of your violation or the systems we have in place. This decision is absolutely final.

Thanks for your understanding,

Marissa
User Operations
Facebook

Ah, the ‘multiple occasions.’ That’s right. In early 2008 – just a few months into having my account – I had uploaded a .csv file of my email address book into their FriendFinder feature to see who I already knew on Facebook. At the time, I had 10,000 people in my email address book – friends, family members, clients, and others whom I’d emailed with over the years. I’d only uploaded a fourth of my address book, which yielded 300 of my peeps who were on Facebook. I added them, and was booted. Once again, because The System had determined that I was adding people ‘too fast’ – even though I was using their own service to do so. After lengthy correspondence with them, they reinstated my account.

And now here we are, seemingly in the same spot all over again. I’m left with several options:

  1. I could rebuild my Facebook profile from scratch.
  2. I could forget about Facebook – screw it.
  3. I could try, once more, to get my Facebook profile back.

Here’s what I’m thinking about these options:

  1. It took me over a year to get in touch with all you lovely people to begin with; I don’t have the time or energy to do that again. Besides, my main strategy for rebooting would be to upload my .csv file again, which is now at 15,000 contacts! The Facebook robots surely wouldn’t like that; I’d be back at Square One with the constant spectre of account deactivation.
  2. This would certainly be satisfying in the short term. After all, I’m on Twitter, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Missional Tribe, and more Ning networks than you can shake a stick at (including Steve Knight’s super-nice new one, the TransFORM network!); do I really need Facebook? In 2009? ‘Need’ is of course a relative term. And at the end of the day, the fact of the matter is I keep in touch with more people I’m connected with in more ways on Facebook than the above means. I share photos with people here in Raleigh, with family members all over; heck, I talk to my wife via Facebook, posting interesting links to her wall. And I get to talk to all of you on Facebook, more often than on this blog. I’ll post a link, and 20 to 100 of you will start weighing in on it. Sometimes that gets contentious, but most of the time we have some great conversations, don’t we? That’s why I heard from a couple dozen of you within hours of my profile getting disabled; some of you thought you’d pissed me off for good! But no. ‘Tis the robots. So yeah…I want to stay on FB. Which brings me to…
  3. I have a hunch that if you emailed Marissa and the Facebook team on my behalf – and they heard from enough of you – they’d realize that I’m not someone jumping on Facebook to hawk, well, male anatomy enhancers. Something simple. Here are the email addresses to send a brief email to, something like this:

Send to all of these email addresses: info@facebook.com, disabled@facebook.com, appeals@facebook.com, info+dm2mi0p@facebook.com

Subject line: Please Reactive Mike Morrell’s Facebook Profile

Hi Marissa,

My friend[/Facebook friend] Mike Morrell had his account (facebook.com/zoecarnate) disabled Saturday, and I think that’s a mistake. I am a [friend/fellow comic book reader/spiritual co-dreamer/client/activist/chia pet] with Mike and have always enjoyed hearing from him on Facebook because ____.  If you could reinstate his account, I would appreciate it. He didn’t mean to trip up your system, honest.

Thank you.

Sincerely.

[You]

Tell ‘em something personal about why you like connecting with me on Facebook, if something particular comes to mind. (By all means, don’t waste more than fifteen seconds of your life trying to think about whether something does) Let ‘em know that, while I’m a hyperconnected rapscallion, I don’t spam people, I don’t sell widgets, and most of the time I just use Facebook like any other user does – except for those times when we have wild, animated conversations around links that I post. Hopefully if enough of you say a little something, Marissa and the other fine, overworked foks at Facebook will see the light and reactivate

Thanks so much…I’ll keep you updated on this very post.

Loving Neighbors – and even ‘enemies’ – in the Wake of Ft. Hood

Crescent and CrossUnless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve heard that last week an army psychologist, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, opened fire at Fort Hood and killed 13 people. You’ve probably also heard the inevitable discussion that follows senseless violent tragedy, focusing on the nearly-unanswerable question “Why?” From a ’systems thinking’ point of view, there are many legitimate facets to put on the table, including mental health, post-traumatic stress disorder, the general morale and collective mental state of troops involved in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, and – yes – the influence of radicalized, fundamentalist Islam.

All well and necessary. But what happens when fundamentalist Christians – and their more respectable evangelical neighbors – ignore 3 of the 4 above factors and generalize the last one, painting all Muslims as a potential fifth column ’sleeper cell’ in our midst? It isn’t pretty. I’ve been avoiding the typical watering holes for such ‘reasoning’ – Fox News, CBN, WorldNetDaily. I know better. But one place I’ve been unable to avoid seeing it is on my own Facebook network. In some cases dear friends making statements like “If three friends from my local [Christian] congregation were involved in shootings, I don’t know if you could claim that my religion is peaceful. Hmm.” What follows is some of my tentative, in-process response, to my friends and family members who are scared, and want to know how followers of Jesus should respond in the wake of this tragedy.

Where to begin? First off, I do agree that Major Hasan had some shady connections. Not only was he not investigated for those connections, but he was actually appointed by the Bush administration to be high up in Homeland Security if this source is to be believed! This is very odd, and needs to be investigated.

But I’ve gotta be honest with you: It makes me sick to my stomach to hear people compare the best of their faith with the worst in others’ faiths. Of course your truncated version of Christianity will come out smelling like a rose! But we cannot forget that we have a legacy of violence, terror, shame, and intimidation along with the worst of Islam. We too have ‘texts of terror’ in our sacred scriptures, and we do best to handle them with the utmost care so as not to let their volatility spill out into the fragility of our interconnected lives. How is caricaturing a faith held by a billion people worldwide loving our enemies? How is it going to show them the love of Christ?

I agree that PTSD doesn’t excuse someone for their actions. But as someone who personally suffers from anxiety-related issues, I can assure you it’s very real. Radical Islam is doubtless a factor in this man’s thinking, but it’s equally obvious to me that he tried, repeatedly, to get discharged so that he would not enter an arena of war that is increasingly demoralizing our troops – troops that he dealt with frequently as a psychiatrist at Walter Reed hospital. Suicide and domestic violence rates are up exponentially among troops involved in our neverending wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. If we Christians wish to focus our indignation somewhere, perhaps it should be on why we entered these zero-sum conflicts to begin with.

Does The Qur’an Uniformly Promote Violence?

So we all hear the ‘naughty bits’ of the Qur’an trumpeted daily via sources like FAUX FOX news and WND, and on increasingly hysterical and polarizing talk radio. But have we ever heard these passages?

“On that account: We (Allah) ordained for the Children of Israel that if any one slew a person – unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land – it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people. Then although there came to them Our apostles with clear signs, yet, even after that, many of them continued to commit excesses in the land. (The Noble Qur’an, 5:32)”

“Fight in the cause of Allah (God) those who fight you, but do not transgress limits; for Allah (God) loveth not transgressors. (The Noble Qur’an, 2:190)”

“But if the enemy incline towards peace, do thou (also) incline towards peace, and trust in Allah (God) : for He is One that heareth and knoweth (all things). (The Noble Qur’an, 8:61)”

“If thou dost stretch thy hand against me, to slay me, it is not for me to stretch my hand against thee to slay thee: for I do fear God, the cherisher of the worlds. (The Noble Qur’an, 5:28)”

“Allah does not forbid you from showing kindness and dealing justly with those who have not fought you about religion and have not driven you out of your homes. Allah loves just dealers. (The Noble Qur’an, 60:8)”

“And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for Allah (God). But if they desist, then let there be no hostility except against wrongdoers. (The Noble Qur’an 2:193)”

“Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from error: whoever rejects evil and believes in Allah hath grasped the most trustworthy handhold, that never breaks. And Allah heareth and knoweth all things. (The Noble Qur’an, 2:256)”

“Say, ‘The truth is from your Lord’: Let him who will believe, and let him who will, reject (it):……(The Noble Qur’an, 18:29)”

“If it had been thy Lord’s will, they would all have believed,- all who are on earth! Wilt thou then compel mankind, against their will, to believe? (The Noble Quran, 10:99)”

“Say: ‘Obey Allah, and obey the Messenger: but if ye turn away, he is only responsible for the duty placed on him and ye for that placed on you. If ye obey him, ye shall be on right guidance. The Messenger’s duty is only to preach the clear (Message). (The Noble Quran, 24:54)”

“Say : O ye that reject Faith! I worship not that which ye worship, Nor will ye worship that which I worship. And I will not worship that which ye have been wont to worship, Nor will ye worship that which I worship. To you be your Way, and to me mine. (The Noble Qur’an, 109:1-6)”

Allah Almighty loves those who restrain anger: “Those who spend (freely), whether in prosperity, or in adversity; who restrain anger, and pardon (all) men; for Allah loves those who do good. (The Noble Qur’an, 3:134)”

“And you (O Muslims) shall certainly hear much that will grieve you from those who received the Scripture before you (Jews and Christians) and from those who ascribe partners to Allah; but if you persevere patiently, and become Al-Muttaqoon (the pious) then verily, that will be a determining factor in all affairs” (The Noble Qur’an 3:186)

Narrated Aisha(prophet’s wife) : “Whenever the Prophet was given an option between two things, he used to select the easier of the tow as long as it was not sinful; but if it was sinful, he would remain far from it. By Allah, he never took revenge for himself concerning any matter that was presented to him, but when Allah’s Limits were transgressed, he would take revenge for Allah’s Sake. (Translation of Sahih Bukhari, Limits and Punishments set by Allah (Hudood), Volume 8, Book 81, Number 777)”

The Prophet said, “When Allah had finished His creation, He wrote over his Throne: ‘My Mercy preceded My Anger.’

…these are just a few passages that some quick research pulled up. They adequately illustrate, I think, that the Qur’an is a multifaceted work that requires thoughtful interpretation; a text that provides ample inspiration for living a life of peace and love toward God and each other…just like the Bible for Christians. (No, I’m not saying their identically equivalent, nor am I saying that the Qur’an is my holy book. Only that we shouldn’t blithely quote a few less-than-flattering passages out of context and then claim that terrorists are ‘being good Muslims’ by emulating them. That’s not good hermeneutics for any faith. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and all that jazz.)

Extending Hospitality in the Name of Jesus

Some of my friends are upset that I’d quote peaceful passages from the Qur’an and spend so much energy defending Muslims from their detractors. “Why defend a false and hateful religion?” they implore. This makes me think of the psychological term projection. We tend to externalize what we most fear within ourselves. People who find falsehood and hatred in others’ faiths might be anxious about their own collective legacy of deceit and mistreatment of outsiders. If we don’t deal with our shadow sides, we tend to see them writ large in the external world. As Richard Rohr puts it, “If we don’t transform our pain, we transmit it.”

Jesus tells us to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. I don’t want to be Pollyanna-ish about the current state of affairs: I know that there are violent Muslims in the world, and I know that I would not want to live in several countries where extreme interpretations of Sharia law are in place – laws that severely restrict the freedom of women, of faith, and of conscience. Please understand this, all friends who think that I (and hordes of ’self-hating liberal Christians,’ I suppose) am simplistically giving the entire Islamic world of all facets a blank check. I had a great Global Civilizations teacher in undergrad days – s/he had ties to US Intelligence. And I’ve kept up with reading since then. I am not hiding my head in the sand from certain harsher global realities. What I am doing, though, is soberly acknowledging the truth of Jesus’ words – violence begets violence. A cursory examination of the past thousand years of world history – of Christian Crusaders versus Muslim Crusaders, of the West versus the Ottoman Empire, of America funding Islamic leaders over and against Communism during the Cold War when it suited our purposes, then reversing support – shows a vicious cycle of manipulation, domination, and propaganda against ‘the Enemy’ – on both sides. And now, thanks in part to the Internet, peace-loving people on all sides of this conflict are saying ‘Enough!’

For me as a follower of Jesus, I believe that hospitality is the antidote to violence in our day. In the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, God commands us to show love and hospitality to three kinds of people: Strangers, Neighbors, and Enemies. (Also Widows, Orphans, and Immigrants, but those can be considered under the previous headings, yes?) Jesus came to offer us a Way out of the patterns of violence and oppression that beset us. In first century Palestine, the ‘ways of being’ in the world were either that you were with Empire (as a Roman citizen and/or a member of the Herodian ruling Jewish elite), warily alongside empire, but focusing on personal piety (like the Pharisee party), a separatist (like the Essenes), or a violent revolutionary (like the Sicarii or Zealot Party). Jesus accurately predicted that these four options would lead to death and destruction, especially for the people of God, as they were all based on fear of ‘the other’ and self-preservation. (This happened, by the way, in AD 70, as Jerusalem was consumed with a bloody civil war and then finished off by Roman armies. It was the end of an epoch; this is what Jesus wept over.) The only way out of this deadly impasse, ironically, was to lose one’s life in self-giving love  – especially toward The Other.

So which is it, contemporary Western Christians? Are Muslims our neighbors? Frankly, we have to do a much better job getting to know them – as people, and on their own terms – before we have the right to refer to Muslims living in our locality as our neighbors. So are they Strangers? Probably. Are they enemies? Probably not, not any Muslims you personally know. (Remember, projection! What have the actual Muslims in your community, and at your job, ever done to you? Sit with God a moment and see what shadows seep out from within; name them for what they are, and release them back to the compassionate and truthful One. See how this enlarges your perspective.) But even if they were enemies, even if all Muslims were our honest-to-God enemies – then what is our responsibility toward them? Jesus once again has a real counter-intuitive zinger:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (from Matthew 5)

Perfection according to God is expression love and doing good toward “the just and unjust” alike. This shouldn’t surprise Christians, since our Scripture boldly proclaims that God is love, and that those who have love have God. This is certainly the scandalous, prodigal inclusion Jesus practices toward the ‘Muslim’ of his day, the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. Think about it: First century Samaritans were to Jews what 21st century Muslims are to Christians: Same family tree, divergent ideas about God, legitimate prophets, and worship. Many Jews of Jesus’ day – like many Christians of our own – shunned the SamariMuslims, finding their worship and culture backwards and oppressive. But Jesus, while he did get a word in edgewise about the technical correct-ness of Jewish worship (I guess He couldn’t help Himself), re-oriented the both of them to a coming eschaton where the minutiae of theology and modalities of worship would fade away in light of the brilliant soon-coming epoch were all people would worship together in spirit and reality. We might not be quite there yet – and we shouldn’t gloss over differences, but discuss them, passionately, once we have a relational right to – but abundant, joyful hospitality to strangers, neighbors, and enemies is the Royal Road of Love that Jesus invites us to walk.

It’s Really All About God

All About GodA book by this title by Christian pastor Samir Selmanovic has been saving my sanity in these tumultuous times. Do yourself a favor and read it. If you’re too cheap to immediately spring for a copy merely on my recommendation, listen to this recent talk he gave. And hear him read excerpts from his book. But then buy it! You’ll be glad you did.

While you’re reading, I’d also recommend Sufi poetry, by folks like Rumi and Hafiz. The point in gaining appreciation for the peace and love expressed by the vast majority of Islam is not to convert to Islam, or to excuse the very real atrocities carried out by a minority of those professing Islam. Rather, by comparing their best to our best, Christians can have better conversations and relationships with real-life Muslims who suffer – a lot – whenever an incident like the Ft Hood Shootings splash across the media.

Recommended Contemporary Muslim Reading:

Eboo Patel
Zia Sardar

Alt.Muslim

Muslim Futures Network
Islamicate
Muslim Peace Fellowship
Islam Is Peace

Placing the shooting in perspective

Muslim Communities Rally To Support Victims of Fort Hood
Why Home-Grown Islamic Terrorism Isn’t A Threat
Don’t blame Islam for Fort Hood killings, Baptist leader says
The Fort Hood Shootings and the White Privilege of Disassociation
Fort Hood and Prejudice

Five Futures for Muslims by Sohail Inayatullah

That’s it for now. Shalom, Salaam, and Pax Christi.

ROM By-the-Numbers: November 7

Musclebound

Not quite there yet...

Range-of-motion results this week:

  • Overall weight: 255
  • Bodyfat: 28.7%%
  • Muscle: 34.3%

For the whole (health) story-to-date, go here!

Flash Review: Hero for Christ by Christopher Sunami

Hero for ChristAs I mentioned yesterday, I’ll be doing flash reviews of noteworthy book releases I’ve been sent during this past month year, giving you a little taste of what they have to offer.

Hero for Christ contains 30 brief character meditations on people who embodied Jesus in the here and now – and how we can benefit from their example. Includes pieces from a wonderfully global mix, including Sundar Singh, Dorothy Day, and Toyohiko Kagawa. The writing style and illustrations by Michael Krone make this ideal reading for middle school ages on up.

Book site

About Christopher Sunami (also – watch his videos!) Sunami

Flash Reviews This Week

Book ReviewsIn addition to my day job, getting the word out on amazing books via the ViralBloggers network, I get sent a lot books for potential review. Larger publishers know the drill – if they’re sending books, particularly unsolicited, it’s hit-or-miss whether they’ll actually get reviewed. But I have a soft spot for self-published and/or first-time authors; it takes a lot of time, energy, and courage to get your first words out there – they warrant some kind of feedback from the reading & reviewing public.

Soo, I’m 30 now. And one of the things I hope this means is that I’m becoming more efficient, and I’ll be falling more and more in a natural rhythm of doing the things that I love doing – including reviewing books. Until said efficiency arrives in its fullness, however, I’m going to herald its arrival this week and the next by doing a series of Flash Reviews – 1-2 sentence reviews of books I’ve received, with the author & ordering information. You need to know about some of these unique and under-the-radar titles that are gracing my library. I’ll be reviewing many of the titles in ‘genre clusters,’ including ‘House Church,’ ‘Holy Spirit,’ and ‘Christian Universalist.’

Watch this space!

ROM By-the-Numbers: November 1

Range-of-motion results this week:

  • Overall weight: 256
  • Bodyfat: 28.9%%
  • Muscle: 34.1%

For the whole (health) story-to-date, go here!

WCW Wrestler takes on the ROM!

My father-in-law

My father-in-law

Here is part two of Sgt. Craig ‘The Pitbull’ Pittman taking on the ROM. (Did you miss the first video? It’s right here.) We had a blast filming these; he’s heard me rave about the ROM since I started using it earlier this year. (I think he was impressed that I’m getting any kind of regular workout; probably one of his greatest disappointments when his daughter & I started dating in the 1990s was how his precious little girl – scion of two Olympic athletes! – was seeing, not quite a 98 pound weakling, but someone who didn’t have much athletic attention span. The ROM is changing all that.)

The Sergent (that’s how I thought of him as a teenager; the first time I took his daughter out, with some of our mutual friends, he said to me & the other guy with me – “You take care of these girls, and bring them home on time – otherwise I’m going to have fun playing with your carcasses!”) has had an illustrious career, beginning with Olympic and Marine wrestling, continuing with Japanese Vale Tudo fighting, and culminating in WCW wrestling. These days? He lives the quiet, sedate life of a law enforcement specialist in Florida. You don’t want to mess with him.

With that said, the ROM gave him quite a run for his money – as you can see in the video! What I appreciate about the machine is how it matches the level of athleticism and energy you put into it. It’s gentle enough for my dad – who’s no physical slouch himself, but has back problems – and yet can wear out a world-class athlete.

And me.

(To see my complete ROM health & fitness journey to date, go here!)

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