Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

Simone Weil on Oil, War and National Security

Simone Weil, speaking prophetically in the late 30's / early 40's

What a country calls its vital economic interests are not the things which enable its citizens to live, but the things which enable it to make war; petrol is much more likely than wheat to be a cause of international conflict. Thus when war is waged it is for the purpose of safeguarding or increasing one’s capacity to make war. International politics are wholly involved in this vicious cycle. What is called national prestige consists in behaving always in such a way as to demoralize other nations by giving them the impression that, if it comes to war, one would certainly defeat them. What is called national security is an imaginary state of affairs in which one would retain the capacity to make war while depriving all other countries of it. It amounts to this, that a self-respecting nation is ready for anything, including war, except for a renunciation of its option to make war. But why is it so essential to be able to make war? No one knows, any more than the Trojans knew why it was necessary for them to keep Helen. That is why the good intentions of peace-loving statesman are so ineffectual. If the countries were divided by a real opposition of interests, it would be possible to arrive at a satisfactory compromise. But when economic and political interests have no meaning apart from war, how can they be peacefully reconciled?

Simone Weil: An Anthology, 224. 

 

Déjà vu: Alexandria and Antioch

This past week the Lower Mainland in British Columbia has been abuzz with a visit by N. T. Wright. Wright has thoughtfully challenged the reformed and evangelical clan to be more deeply reformed and evangelical.

Wright’s more catholic approach to the reformed exegetical tradition has challenged a way of doing exegesis. But, has it? I will return to this question shortly. There is no doubt that Wright has taken to task the Packer-Piper position, and he has done so in an informed manner. All are agreed that the Bible is the foundation and authority, but it has become obvious that how the Bible is interpreted is another form of authority. Why are some books in the canon elevated and others subordinated, some texts prized and others demoted, some sections cherished and others ignored? There are, therefore, two levels of authority both within the Old and New Testaments: the Bible and its interpretation. It is this deutero-canonical authority that Wright is, rightly so, questioning. There are those that so equate Bible-interpretation that they do not know the difference between the authority of the one and the questionable authority of the other. But, let us move on.

Does God Punish? by Fr. Michael Gillis (Holy Nativity Orthodox)

     Thomas Hardy says of the main character in The Mayor of Casterbridge, Michael Henchard, that “misery taught him nothing more than the defiant endurance of it.”   What does misery teach us?  What can it teach us?  Can it teach us more than just the fact that we must endure it?

     This is a tricky topic, for suffering is a mystery--a mystery in the deepest sense of the word.  We all suffer, some much more than others; and some suffer under the same circumstance that others would consider a blessing.  

     A lot depends on expectation.  The one who expects pain and finds only discomfort rejoices.  The one who expects luxury and finds discomfort is miserable.  We can be cheated or abused by a stranger and think little of it, but cruelty or mere neglect from someone whom we expected to love us leaves painful scars that last a lifetime.  Suffering and misery are never good, and yet good may come of it.  Misery does teach us, but what we learn depends a great deal on us.  

Signs of God's Kingdom Now by Bob Ekblad

Signs of God's Kingdom now: witnessing Jesus' work among the Mennonites in Iowa

I recently spent four days ministering at Sugar Creek Mennonite Church in Wayland, Iowa.  There I witnessed varied signs of Jesus’ Kingdom coming together here & now in ways rare & desperately-needed in North America. 

Sugar Creek is a historic peace church in the Anabaptist tradition.  They believe in Jesus’ teaching on love of neighbor and enemy alike—which works itself out in lavish potlucks, barn raisings and other community-oriented good deeds and a commitment to resisting war. 

Over 20 of Sugar Creek’s members were conscientious objectors in WWII-- an unpopular outworking of following Jesus in choosing to love and pray for (rather than kill) national enemies.  Like many peace churches, living out Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 is a high priority.  Nathan, the pastor, had invited me to share on dimensions of discipleship less known & practiced by his congregation--the gifts of the Holy Spirit & healing prayer.

Aung San Suu Kyi Free -- by Oddny Gumaer

We had been waiting for this day for years.

Prayed for it, talked about it. Now the day was here. Aung San Suu Kyi walked out of her house arrest. It seemed too good to be true. Maybe it is too good to be true.

On Saturday November 13th the Burmese junta released Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from her illegal house arrest. The junta has detained Suu Kyi for 15 of the last 21 years, and continuously since May 30, 2003.

While thousands rejoiced in the streets of Rangoon and millions joined around the world, the military junta continued its offenses in the ethnic areas around the country. For the thousands who were forced to flee from their homes, the day was far from happy.

Nouvelle Theologie & Sacramental Ontology: A Return to Mystery by Hans Boersma -- Book Review by Ron Dart

The opportunity to spend an entire year Sabbatical year reading the theology of the ressourcement movement has been a sacramental gift. 

Hans Boersma (vii) 

Hans Boersma has already rendered exquisite and probing yeoman’s duty with Violence, Hospitality and the Cross: Reappropriating the Atonement Tradition (2004). This groundbreaking tome made it abundantly clear that the historic and patristic church had five main ways of understanding the atonement, hence there is no need to be committed to one particular version of the atonement (particularly the penal-juridical theory). Hans’ turn to the breadth and depth of the Great Tradition signaled, for the alert, the larger project that he is engaged in -- a return to the ancient sources as a site of insight and nourishment for the mind and imagination, soul and heart. The modern and postmodern project are thin and lack a decided depth, hence the much needed and delayed return to the life giving wells of the waiting past.

Refugee Crisis: Thousands Flee Burma

Thousands flee Burma as attacks escalate following sham “Elections” Over the past three days tens of thousands of people have fled from Burma Army clashes and forced conscription. More than ten thousand fled the border town of Myawaddy into Mae Sot, Thailand, alone. There have also been confirmed clashes–including the launching of heavy artillery–in other parts of Karen State, Burma which have resulted in more than 10,000 people fleeing for the Thai border with only their clothes on their backs. The situation is very tense and very fluid. Partners Relief & Development is responding to this crisis. Clothes are being delivered, food supplied and a glimmer of hope restored. But, we need your help. For the past fifteen years, Partners Relief & Development has been on the front lines of practically loving the people of Burma, especially in times like these. We’ve only been able to do this, however, with your help. To give today, please give via our secure online donation page. Please be praying for God to intervene and protect the least of these. Pray that their struggle will result in freedom. Pray believing that history can and will change and children will be able to live Free, Full Lives! Please watch for updates on our Facebook page. Thank you. - Partners Relief & Development Canada

 

Movie Review of 'With God on our side" - by Frank Schaeffer

The State of Israel just announced a decision (New York Times, Tuesday Nov 7, 2010) to advance the approval of some 1,000 new housing units in East Jerusalem during a sensitive time in the peace negotiations with the Palestinians. What they didn't mention is that several American Christian Zionist groups have been raising money to help build new illegal settlements on occupied land for years.

The so-called Jewish lobby is supposed to be so powerful that no American president can act without their approval. This is an anti-Semitic slur, a kind of Americanized "lite" version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (a forged anti-Semitic screed purporting to describe a Jewish plan to achieve global domination). For one thing most Jewish-Americans aren't part of this lobby, but rather are ordinary American citizens who are just as skeptical of right-wing Jewish Zionist fundamentalist Israelis as other Americans are -- perhaps more so, because they know more about them.

Martin Luther King Jr. re: Canada

It is a deep personal privilege to address a nationwide Canadian audience. Over and above any kinship of U.S. citizens and Canadians as North Americans, there is a singular historical relationship between American Negroes and Canadians.

Canada is not merely a neighbour to Negroes. Deep in our history of struggle for freedom Canada was the North Star. The Negro slave, denied education, de-humanized, imprisoned on cruel plantations, knew that far to the north a land existed where a fugitive slave, if he survived the horrors of the journey, could find freedom. The legendary underground railroad started in the south and ended in Canada. The freedom road links us together. Our spirituals, now so widely admired around the world, were often codes. We sang of 'heaven' that awaited us, and the slave masters listened in innocence, not realizing that we were not speaking of the hereafter. Heaven was the word for Canada and the Negro sang of the hope that his escape on the underground railroad would carry him there. One of our spirituals, 'Follow the Drinking Gourd', in its disguised lyrics contained directions for escape. The gourd was the big dipper, and the North Star to which its handle pointed gave the celestial map that directed the flight to the Canadian border.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Acknowledgements

The quotation from Martin Luther King Jr is taken from p. 1 ofConscience for Change, published by CBC Learning Systems in 1967 - the printed form of the 1967 Massey Lectures, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

 

Freedom is Constrained: Brief Thoughts on the Freedom Problem by Eric H. Janzen

In some ways human history can be summed up in the search for freedom.  Not only to be free, but more profoundly, what it means to be free.  The path goes something like this: if we can figure out how to be free we will as a result be happy, satisfied, and fulfilled.  The search for freedom, as you can imagine, has followed many different routes each attempting to define those elusive elements needed to ensure true human freedom.  Ancient and modern philosophers, most religions and spiritual systems, science, technology, and social systems have all sought the answer.  After thousands of years and diverse propositions the world has come no closer to a real answer, for every human effort invariably fails to provide the freedom that the human heart is seeking. 

'We are free,' many have claimed, 'yet we are miserable', they conclude.  'We are free,' they say, 'yet we are corrupt' they realize.  Oppressive systems have attempted to impose control on societies valuing order over personal freedom, leaving populations far from happiness.  Democratic or 'free' societies have placed freedom so high upon a pedestal that restraint of any kind is revolted at, yet they are amongst the most depressed populations in the world.  To do as I want when I please is the order of the philosophical day, but it has not led to happiness.  One might conclude that 'freedom' is a kind of will'o'the'wisp, an illusion always just out of reach and that true happiness is also an illusion fooling us all as we grasp at empty air pursuing it through a dark forest.

Song of a Jailhouse Chaplain -- a Social-Prophetic Sampling of Chris Hoke

"No Contact":  Here's a sneak peek from the upcoming album by Hollow G (Teddy), produced by local Christian producer Loc Saint (complete lyrics below).

01 No Contact (rough draft)

 

For the last five years, Chris Hoke has gone with Bob Ekblad to the Skagit County Jail in northwest WA where they read the Bible and pray with men of all races and criminal levels. Inmates, especially the young Chicano gang members, have been vocal about how much they appreciate Chris' singing and guitar playing before the dialogical Bible studies. One particular young gang member would sing all the new raps and rhymes he'd write in his solitary confinement cell to Chris when they would have one on one visitations. "One day, Chris," he'd exclaim, "we're gonna record together. You and your white boy guitar with my gangster raps!"

That day has come. Only the song, "No Contact," laments that the original homie who had the idea is still locked up in prison, along with most of the young men Chris has ministered to in the jail and gangs. The vision came to fulfillment with another young survivor of the gang life--who goes by Hollow G--who has grown alongside Chris, the Tierra Nueva community, and the Holy Spirit bringing G into God's family. Hollow G is working on a full album about the life of an American alien growing up into the gang life, "Raised By the Streets."